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A OEITIOAL 



HISTORY OF FREE THOUGHT 



Jli REFERENCE TO 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



(& igM ^uiww 



PREACHED BEFORE THE 



UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, IN THE YEAR M.DCCC.LXIL, ON THE 

FOUNDATION OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAALPTON, M.A. 

CANON OF SALISBURY. 



BY " 

ADAM STOREY FARRAR, M.A 

W 

MICHEL FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEOE, OXFORD. 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

549 & 551 BROADWAY. 
1876. 



\%X(o 



.to Exchange 

Brown University 
JUL 17 1934 



;j.d 



EXTEACT 

FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 

OF THE LATE 

REV. JOHN BAMPTON, 

CANON OF SALISBURY. 



" 1 give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the 

" Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford 
" for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the said Lands 
"or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and purposes here- 
" inafter mentioned ; that is to say, I will and appoint that the 
" Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the time being 
" shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, 
" and (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made) 
" that he pay all the remainder to the endowment of eight Divin- 
" ity Lecture Sermons, to be established for ever in the said Uni- 
" versity, and to be performed in the manner following : 

" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter 
" Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges 
" only, and by no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing- 
" House, between the hours of ten in the morning and two in the 
" afternoon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year 
" following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement 
" of the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week 
" in Act Term. 



IV EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON S WILL. 

" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture 
" Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following Sub- 
jects — to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to con- 
" fute all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine authority of 
" the holy Scriptures — upon the authority of the writings of the 
" primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive 
"Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
" Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles 
" of the Christian Faith as comprehended in the Apostles' and 
" Nicene Creeds. 

" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture 
11 Sermons shall be always printed, within two months after they 
" are preached ; and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of 
" the University, and one copy to the Head of every College, and 
" one copy to the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy to 
" be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expense of printing 
" them shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates 
" given for establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the 
" Preacher shall not be paid nor be entitled to the revenue before 
" they are printed. 

" Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified 
" to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken 
" the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Uni- 
" versities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the same person 
"shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice." 



PKEFACE. 



THE object of this Preface is to explain the design of the fol- 
lowing Lectures, and to enumerate the sources on which they 
are founded. 

What is the province and mode of inquiry intended in a 
" Critical History of Free Thought " l ? What are the causes which 
led the author into this line of study 2 ? What the object pro- 
posed by the work 3 ? What the sources from which it is 
drawn A ? — these probably are the questions which will at once 
suggest themselves to the reader. The answers to most of them 
are so fully given in the work 5 , that it will only be necessary 
here to touch upon them briefly. 

The word " free thought " is now commonly used, at least in 
foreign literature 6 , to express the result of the revolt of the mind 
against the pressure of external authority in any department of 
life or speculation.* Information concerning the history of the 
term is given elsewhere 7 . It will be sufficient now to state, that 
the cognate term, free thinking, was appropriated by Collins early 
in the last century 8 to express Deism. It differs from the modern 
term free thought, both in being restricted to religion, and in con- 
veying the idea rather of the method than of its result, the free- 
dom of the mode of inquiry rather than the character of the con- 
clusions attained ; but the same fundamental idea of indepen- 
dence and freedom from authority is implied in the modern term. 

(1) Pref. pp. v.-ix. (2) Id. pp. x, xi. (3) Id. pp. xii, xiii. 

(4) Id. p. xiv. (b v ; Lect. I. : and Lect. VIII. p. 340 seq. 

(6) E. s. in the French expression la hbre jjtnsee. (7) In Note 21. p. 413, 
(8) In 1713. 



VI PREFACE. 

Within the sphere of its application to the Christian religion, 
free thought is generally used to denote three different systems ; 
viz. Protestantism, scepticism, and unbelief. Its application to 
the first of these is unfair 9 . It is true that all three agree in re- 
sisting the dogmatism of any earthly authority; but Protest- 
antism reposes implicitly on what it believes to be the divine 
authority of the inspired writers of the books of holy scripture ; 
whereas the other two forms acknowledge no authority external 
to the mind, no communication superior to reason and science. 
Thus, though Protestantism by its attitude of independence seems 
similar to the other two systems, it is really separated by a differ- 
ence of kind, and not merely of degree 10 . The present history is 
restricted accordingly to the treatment of the two latter species 
of free thought, — the resistance of the human mind to the Chris- 
tian religion as communicated through revelation, either in part 
or in whole, neither the scepticism which disintegrates it, or the 
unbelief which rejects it : the former directing itself especially 
against Christianity, the latter against the idea of revelation, or 
even of the supernatural generally. 

An analogous reason to that which excludes the history of 
Protestantism, excludes also that of the opposition made to Chris- 
tianity by heresy, and by rival religions " : inasmuch as they 
repose on authorities, however false, and do not profess to resort 
to an unassisted study of nature and truth. 

This account of the province included under free thought will 
prepare the way for the explanation of the mode in which the 
subject is treated. 

It is clear that the history, in order to rise above a chronicle, 
must inquire into the causes which have made freedom of inquiry 
develope into unbelief. The causes have usually been regarded 
by theologians to be of two kinds, viz. either superhuman or 
human ; and, if of the latter kind, to be either moral or intel- 
lectual. Bishop Van Mildert, in his History of Infidelity, re- 
stricted himself entirely to the former 12 . Holding strongly that 
the existence of evil in the world was attributable, not only 
indirectly and originally, but directly and perpetually, to the 

(9) Many of the modern French protestant critics so employ it ; e. g. A. Kevillc, 
Rev. des Deux Mondes, Parker, Oct. 1861. 

(10) Cfr. pp. 9 and 99. 

(11> Cfr. p. 12, and Notes 4, 5, and 6, at the end of this volume. 
(12) Boyle Lectures (1802-4). See note, p, 345, 



PREFACE. Vll 

operation of the evil spirit, he regarded every form of heresy and 
unbelief to be the attempt of an invisible evil agent to thwart the 
truth of God ; and viewed the history of infidelity as the study 
of the results of the operation of this cause in destroying the 
kingdom of righteousness. Such a view invests human life and 
history with a very solemn character, and is not without prac- 
tical value ; but it will be obvious that an analysis of this kind 
must be strictly theological, and removes the inquiry from the 
province of human science. Even when completed, it leaves 
unexplored the whole field in which such an evil principle oper- 
ates, and the agencies which he employs as his instruments. 

The majority of writers on unbelief accordingly have treated 
the subject from a less elevated point of view, and have limited 
their inquiry to the sphere of the operation of human causes, the 
media axigmata as it were 13 , which express the motives and 
agencies which have been manifested on the theatre of the world, 
and visible in actual history. It will be clear that within this 
sphere the causes are specially of two kinds ; viz. those which 
have their source in the will, and arise from the antagonism of 
feeling, which wishes revelation untrue, and those which mani- 
fest themselves in the intellect, and are exhibited under the form 
of difficulties which beset the mind, or doubts which mislead it, 
in respect to the evidence on which revelation reposes. The 
former, it may be feared, are generally the ground of unbelief; 
the latter the basis of doubt. Christian writers, in the wish to 
refer unbelief to the source of efficient causation in the human 
will, with a view of enforcing on the doubter the moral lesson of 
responsibility, have generally restricted themselves to the former 
of these two Classes ; and by doing so have omitted to explore 
the interesting field of inquiry presented in the natural history of 
the variety of forms assumed by scepticism, and their relation to 
the general causes which have operated in particular ages : — a 
subject most important, if the intellectual antecedents thus dis- 
covered be regarded as causes of doubt ; and not less interesting, 
if, instead of being causes, they are merely considered to be 
instruments and conditions made use of by the emotional powers. 

A history of free thought seems to point especially to the 
study of the latter class. A biographical history of free thinkers 

(13) Bacon's Nov. Org. lib. i. Aph. 104. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

would imply the former ; the investigation of the moral history 
of the individuals, the play of their will and feelings and char- 
acter ; but the history of free thought points to that which has 
been the product of their characters, the doctrines which they 
have taught. Science however no less than piety would decline 
entirely to separate the two 14 ; piety, because, though admitting 
the possibility that a judgment may be formed in the abstract on 
free thought, it would feel itself constantly drawn into the inquiry 
of the moral responsibility of the freethinker in judging of the 
concrete cases ; — science, because, even in an intellectual point of 
view, the analysis of a work of art is defective if it be studied 
apart from the personality of the mental and moral character of 
the artist who produces it. If even the inquiry be restricted to 
the analysis of intellectual causes, a biographic treatment of the 
subject, which would allow for the existence of the emotional, 
would be requisite 15 . 

The province of the following work accordingly is, the exami- 
nation of this neglected branch in the analysis of unbelief. While 
admitting most fully and unhesitatingly the operation of emo- 
tional causes, and the absolute necessity, scientific as well as prac- 
tical, of allowing for their operation, it is proposed to analyse 
the forms of doubt or unbelief in reference mainly to the intel- 
lectual element which has entered into them, and the discovery 
of the intellectual causes which have produced or modified them. 
Thus the history, while not ceasing to belong to church history, 
becomes also a chapter in the history of philosophy, a -page in 
the history of the human mind. 

The enumeration of the causes into which the intellectual ele- 
ments of doubt are resolvable, is furnished in the text of the first 
Lecture 16 . If the nature of some of them be obscure, - and the 
reader be unaccustomed to the philosophical study necessary for 
fully understanding them ; information must be sought in the 
books to which references are elsewhere given 17 , as the subject is 
too large to be developed in the limited space of this Preface. 

The work however professes to be not merely a narrative, but 
a " critical history." The idea of criticism in a history imparts 
to it an ethical aspect. For criticism does not rest content with 



(14) CiV. pp. 14 20. (15) Pp. 32-34. (10) Pp. 24-31. 

Pp. 22, 24, 25. 



PREFACE. IX 

ideas, viewed as facts, out as realities. It seeks to pass above the 
relative, and attain the absolute ; to determine either what is 
right or what is true. It may make this determination by means 
of two different standards. It may be either independent or 
dogmatic; — independent if it enters upon a new field candidly 
and without prepossessions, and rests content with the inferences 
which the study suggests ; — dogmatic, when it approaches a sub- 
ject with views derived from other sources, and pronounces on 
right or wrong, truth or falsehood, by reference to them. 

It is hoped that the reader will not be unduly prejudiced, if 
the confession be frankly made, that the criticism in these Lec- 
tures is of the latter kind. This indeed might be expected from 
their very character. The Bampton Lecture is an establishment 
for producing apologetic treatises. The authors are supposed to 
assume the truth of Christianity, and to seek to repel attacks 
upon it. They are defenders, not investigators. The reader has 
a right to demand fairness, but not independence ; truth in the 
facts, but not hesitation in the inferences. While however the 
writer of these Lectures takes a definite line in the controversy, 
and one not adopted professionally, but with cordial assent and 
heartfelt conviction, he has nevertheless considered that it is due 
to the cause of scientific truth to intermingle his own opinions as 
little as possible with the facts of the history. A history without 
inferences is ethically and religiously worthless : it is a chronicle, 
not a philosophical narrative. But a history distorted to suit the 
inferences is not only worthless, but harmful. It is for the reader 
to judge how far the author has succeeded in the result ; but his 
aim has been not to allow his opinions to warp his view of the 
facts. History ought to be written with the same spirit of cold 
analysis which belongs to science. Caricature must not be sub- 
stituted for portrait, nor vituperation for description ia . 

Such a mode of treatment in the present instance was the 
more possible, from the circumstance that the writer, when study- 
ing the subject for his private information, without any design 
to write upon it, had endeavoured to bring his own principles 
and views perpetually to the test ; and to reconsider them candidly 
by the light of the new suggestions which were brought before 
him. Instead of approaching the inquiry with a spirit of hos- 

(18) Cfr. p. 346 



X PREFACE. 

tility, lie had investigated it as a student, not as a partisan. It 
may perhaps be permitted Mm without egotism to exj)lain the 
causes which led him to the study. He had taken holy orders, 
cordially and heartily believing the truths taught by the church 
of which he is privileged to be an humble minister. Before 
doing so, he had read thoughtfully the great works of evidences 
of the last century, and knew directly or indirectly the character 
of the deist doubts against which they were directed. His own 
faith was one of the head as well as the heart ; founded on the 
study of the evidences, as well as on the religious training of 
early years. But he perceived in the English church earnest 
men who held a different view ; and, on becoming acquainted 
with contemporary theology, he found the theological literature 
of a whole people, the Germans, constructed on another basis ; a 
literature which was acknowledged to be so full of learning, that 
contemporary English writers of theology not only perpetually 
referred to it, but largely borrowed their materials from German 
sources. He wished therefore fully to understand the character 
of these new forms of doubt, and the causes which had produced 
them. He may confess that, reposing on the affirmative verities 
of the Christian faith, as gathered from the scriptures and em- 
bodied in the immemorial teaching of Christ's church, he did 
not anticipate that he should discover that which would over- 
throw or even materially modify his own faith ; but he wished, 
while exploring this field, and gratifying intellectual curiosity, to 
re-examine his opinions at each point by the light of those with 
which he might meet in the inquiry. The serious wish also to 
fulfil his duty in the sphere in which he might move, made him 
desire to understand these new views ; that if false, he might 
know how to refute them when they came before him, and not 
be first made aware of their existence from the harsh satire of 
sceptical critics. His own studies were accordingly conducted 
in a spirit of fairness — the fairness of the inquirer, not of the 
doubter ; and a habit of mind formed by the study of the history 
of philosophy, was brought to bear upon the investigation of this 
chapter in church history : first, of modern forms of doubt, and 
afterwards the consecutive history of unbelief generally. Ac- 
cordingly, while he hopes that he has taken care to leave the 
student in no case unguided, who may accompany him in these 



PREFACE. XI 

pages through the history, he has wished to place him, as he 
strove to place himself, in the position to see the subject in its 
true light before drawing the inferences; to understand each 
topic to a certain extent, as it appears when seen from the oppo- 
site point of view, as well as when seen from the Christian. And 
when this has been effected, he has criticised each by a com- 
parison with those principles which form his standard for testing 
them, the truth of which the study has confirmed to the writer's 
own mind. The criticism therefore does not profess to be inde- 
pendent, but dogmatic ; but it is hoped that the definite char- 
acter of the results will not be found to have prevented fairness 
in the method of inquiry. If the student has the facts correctly, 
he can form his own judgment on the inferences. 

The standard of truth here adopted, as the point of view in 
criticism, is the teaching of Scripture as expressed in the dogmatic 
teaching of the creeds of the church ; or, if it will facilitate clear- 
ness to be more definite, three great truths may be specified, 
which present themselves to the writer's mind as the very founda- 
tion of the Christian religion : (1) the doctrine of the reality of 
the vicarious atonement provided by the passion of our blessed 
Lord ; (2) the supernatural and miraculous character of the re- 
ligious revelation in the book of God ; and (3) the direct opera- 
tion of the Holy Ghost in converting and communing with the 
human soul. Lacking the first of these, Christianity appears to 
him to be a religion without a system of redemption ; lacking the 
second, a doctrine without authority ; lacking the third, a system 
of ethics without spiritual power. These three principles accor- 
dingly are the measure, by agreement with which the truth and 
falsehood of systems of free thought are ultimately tested 19 . 

The above remarks, together with those which occur in the 
text, where fuller explanation is afforded, will illustrate the prov- 
ince of the inquiry, and the spirit in which it is conducted 20 . 

The explanation also of the further question concerning the 
object which the writer proposed to effect, by the treatment of 
such a subject in a course of Bampton Lectures, is given so fully 
elsewhere, that a few words may here suffice in reference to it 21 . 

(19) See especially Lect. VIII. p S57 seq. 

(20) Some valuable remarks on the proper balance of the mind in study are con- 
tained in a sermon, The Nemesis of Excess, recently preached at Oxford, by Bp. 
Jackson. (21) pp. 35-37. 



Xll PREFACE. 

Experience of the wants of students in thi3 time of doubt and 
transition, which those who are practically acquainted with the 
subject will best understand, as well. as observation of the tone of 
thought expressed in our sceptical literature, led hirn to believe 
that a history, natural as well as literary, of doubt ; an analysis 
of the forms and a statement of the intellectual causes of it, would 
have a value, direct and indirect, in many ways. His desire, he 
is willing to confess, was to guide the student, rather than to 
refute the unbeliever. He did not expect to furnish the com- 
batant with ready-made weapons, which would make him omnip- 
otent in conflict ; but he hoped to give him some suggestions in 
reference to the tactics for conducting the contest. The Lectures 
have a polemical aspect, but they seek to obtain their end by 
means of the educational. The writer has aimed at assisting the 
student, in the struggle with his doubts, in the inquiry for truth, 
in the quiet meditative search for light and knowledge, prepara- 
tory to ministering to others. The survey of a new region, which 
ordinary works on the history of infidelity rarely touch, may lay 
bare unsuspected or undetected causes of unbelief ; and thus indi- 
rectly offer a refutation of it ; for intellectual error is refuted, 
when the origin of it is referred to false systems of thought. 
The anatomy of error is the first step to its cure. 

In another point of view, independently of the value of the 
line of inquiry generally, and the special suitability of it to indi- 
vidual minds, there is a further use, which in the present day 
belongs to it in common with all inquiries into the history of 
thought. 

It is hard to persuade the students of a past generation that 
the historic mode of approaching any problem is the first step 
toward its successful solution. Yet a little reflection may at least 
make the meaning of the assertion understood. If we view the 
literary characteristic of the present, in comparison with that of 
past ages, we are perhaps right in stating, that its peculiar fea- 
ture is the prevalence of the method of historical criticism. If 
the four centuries since the Renaissance be considered, the critical 
peculiarity of the sixteenth and seventeenth will be found to be 
the investigation of ancient literature ; in the former directed to 
words, in the latter to things. The eighteenth century broke 
away from the past, and, emancipating itself from authority, tried 



PREFACE. Xlll 

to rebuild truth from its foundations from present materials, inde- 
pendent of the judgment formed by past ages. The nineteenth 
century unites both methods. It ventures not to explore the uni- 
verse, unguided by the experience of the past ; but, while re- 
uniting itself to the past, it does not bow to it. It accepts it as 
a fact, not as an authority. The seventeenth century worshipped 
the past ; the eighteenth despised it : the nineteenth mediates, 
by means of criticism. Accordingly, in literary investigations 
at present, each question is approached from the historic side, 
with the belief that the historico-critical inquiry not only gratifies 
curiosity, but actually contributes to the solution of the problem. 
Some indeed assert 22 this, because they think that the historic 
study of philosophy is the whole of philosophy ; and, believing 
that all truth is relative to its age, are hopeless of attaining the 
absolute and unaltering solution of any problem. We, on the 
other hand, are content to believe that the history of philosophy 
is only the entrance to philosophy. But in either case, truth is 
sought by means of a philosophical history of the past ; which, 
tracking the progress of truth and error in any particular depart- 
ment, lays bare the natural as well as the literary history ; the 
causes of the past, as well as its form. Truth and error are thus 
discovered, not by breaking with the past, and using abstract 
speculations on original data, but by tracing the growth of 
thought, gathering the harvest of past investigations, and learn- 
ing by experience to escape error. 

These considerations bear upon the present subject in this 
manner : they show not only the special adaptation to the passing 
tastes of the age, of an historic mode of approaching a subject, 
but exhibit also that the mode of proof and of refutation must be 
sought, not on abstract grounds, but historic. The position of an 
enemy is not to be forced, but turned ; his premises to be refuted, 
not his conclusions ; the antecedent reasons which led him into 
his opinion to be exhibited, not merely evidence offered of the 
fact that he is in error. 

This view, that doubt might be refuted by the historic analy- 
sis of its operation, by laying bare the antecedent grounds which 
had produced it, will explain why the author was led to believe 
that a chapter of mental and moral physiology might be useful, 

(22) Cfr. pp. 31 note. S42 ; and Note 9. pp. 393-8. 



XIV PREFACE. 

which would not merely carry out the anatomy of actual forms 
of disease, but discover their origin by the study of the preceding 
natural history of the patients. 

These remarks will perhaps suffice for explaining the object 
which was proposed in writing this history ; and may justify the 
hope that this work, thus adapted to the wants of the time, may 
offer such a contribution to the subject of the Christian evidences, 
as not only to possess an intellectual value, but to coincide with 
the purpose contemplated by the founder of the Lectures. 

It remains to state the sources which have been used for the 
literary materials of the history. Though they are sufficiently 
indicated in the notes, a general description of them may be use- 
ful. 

They may be distributed under four classes : 

1. The histories which have been professedly devoted to the 
subject. 

2. The notices of the history of unbelief in general histories 
of the church or of literature. 

3. (Which ought indeed to rank first in importance;) the 
original authorities for the facts, i. e. the works of the sceptical 
writers themselves; or of the contemporary authors who have 
refuted them. 

4. The monographs, which treat of particular writers, ages, or 
schools, of sceptical thought. 

In approaching the subject, a student would probably com- 
mence with the first two classes ; and. after having thus acquired 
for himself a carte clu pays, would then explore it in detail by the 
aid of the third and fourth. 

1. The works which have professedly treated of the history of 
infidelity, as a whole, are not of great importance. 

One of the earliest was the Historia Univ. Atheismi, 1725, of 
Reimannus ; and the De Atheismo, 1737, of Buddeus. (An ex- 
planation of the word Atheism, as employed by them, is given in 
Note 21. p. 413.) They furnish, as the name implies, a history 
of scepticism, as well as of sceptics ; yet, though the labours of 
such diligent and learned men can never be useless, they afford 
little information now available. Their date also necessarily pre- 
cluded them from knowing the more recent forms of unbelief. 
Perhaps under this head we ought also to name the chapters on 



PREFACE. XV 

polemical theology in the great works of bibliography of the 
German scholars of the same time, such as Pfaff (Hist. IAtt. 
Theol.) ; Buddeus (Isagoge) ; Fabricius (Delectus Argum.) ; 
Walch's (Biblical Theol. Select.) ; which contain lists of sceptical 
works, either directly, or indirectly by naming the apologists who 
have answered them. The references to these works will be found 
in Note 39. p. 436. 

Among French writers, the only one of importance is Houtte- 
ville, who prefixed an Introduction to his work, La Religion 
Chretienne prouvee par des faits, 1722, containing an account of 
the writers for and against Christianity from the earliest times. 
(Translated 1739.) It contains little information concerning the 
authors or the events, but a clearly and correctly written analysis 
of their works and thoughts. 

Among the English writers who have attempted a consecutive 
history of the whole subject was Van Mildert, afterwards 
bishop of Durham, who has been already named. The first vol- 
ume of his Boyle Lectures, in 1802-4, was devoted to the history 
of infidelity ; the second to a general statement of the evidences 
for Christianity. This work, on account of its date, necessarily 
stops short before the existence of modern forms of doubt ; and 
indeed evinces no knowledge concerning the contemporary forms 
of literature in Germany, which had already attracted the atten- 
tion of Dr. Herbert Marsh. The point of view of the work, as 
already described, almost entirely precludes the author from 
entering upon the analysis of the causes, either emotional or intel- 
lectual, which have produced unbelief. Its value accordingly is 
chiefly in the literary materials collected in the notes ; in which 
respect it bears marks of careful study. Though mostly drawn 
from second-hand sources, it exhibits wide reading and thought- 
ful judgment. 

A portion of the Bampton Lectures for 1852, by the Rev. 
J. C. Riddle, was devoted to the subject of infidelity. The au- 
thor's object, as the title 23 implies, was to give the natural history 
of unbelief, to the neglect of the literary. Psychological rather 
than historical analysis was used by him for the investigation ; 
and his examination of the moral causes of doubt is better than 

(23) The Natural History of Infidelity and Superstition in Contrast with Chris- 
tian Faith. 



XVI PREFACE. 

of the intellectual. The notes contain a collection of valuable 
quotations, which supplement those of Yan Mildert, but are un- 
fortunately given, for the most part, without references. 

This completes 24 the enumeration of the histories professedly 
devoted to infidelity, with the exception of a small but very 
creditable production published since several of these lectures 
were written, Defence of the Faith ; Part I. Forms of Unbelief by 
the Rev. S. Robins, forming the first part of a work, of which the 
second is to treat the evidences ; the third to draw the moral. 
It does not profess to be a very deep work 25 ; but it is interest- 
ing ; drawn generally from the best sources, and written in an 
eloquent style and devout spirit. 

2. The transition is natural from these works, which treat of 
the history of unbelief or give lists of the works of unbelievers, 
to the notices of sceptical writers contained in general histories 
of the church or of literature. 

In this, as in the former case, it is only in modern times that 
important notices occur concerning forms of unbelief. The cir- 
cumstance that in the early ages unbelief took the form of oppo- 
sition or persecution on the part of heathens, and that in the 
middle ages it was so rare, caused the ancient church historians 
and mediaeval church chroniclers to record little respecting actual 
unbelief, though they give information about heresy. Even in 
modern times, it is not till the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury that any attention is bestowed on the subject. The earlier 
historians, both Protestant, such as the Magdeburg Centuriators, 
and Catholic, like Baronius, wrote the history of the past for a 
controversial purpose in relation to the contests of their own 
times : and in the next period, in the one church, Arnold confined 
himself to the history of heresy rather than unbelief ; and in the 

(24) A work partly on the history of unbelief, Scepticism a Retrogressive Move 
in Theology and Philosophy, has also been lately written (1861) by the accomplished 
lord Lindsay. Great learning is shown in it. Though written with a special 
controversial purpose, and though the facts accordingly are briefly stated, without 
literary references, it contains a useful summary and suggestive reflections. 

(25) In a literary point of view it is incorrect, in one chapter, if the author 
understands Mr. Robins rightly, where he seems to classify together, under the 
same head of Pantheism, the atheism of the French school of the Encyclopaedists 
in the last century and that of the German philosophers of the present. The two 
indeed agree in denying or ignoring the existence of a personal God ; but in tone, 
premises, and metaphysical relations, they differ diametrically. (Since this noto 
was written, the sad intelligence of Mr. Robins's death has appeared.) 



PREFACE. XV11 

other, Fleury and Tillemont wrote the history of deeds rather 
than of ideas, and afford no information, except in a few allusions 
of the latter writer to the early intellectual opposition of the 
heathens. 

But about the middle of the eighteenth century, in the period 
of cold orthodoxy and solid learning which immediately pre- 
ceded the rise of rationalism, as well as in that of incipient free 
thought, we meet not only with the historians of theological 
literature already named above, but with historians of thought 
like Brucker, and of the church like Mosheim, possessed of large 
taste for inquiry, and wide literary sympathies, who contribute 
information on the subject : and towards the close of the cen- 
tury we find Schrockh, who, in his lengthy and careful history of 
the church since the Reformation 26 , has taken so extensive a view 
of the nature of church history, that he has included in it an 
account of the struggle with freethinkers. Among the same class, 
with the exception that he differs in being marked by rationalist 
sympathies, must be ranked Henke 2T . 

In the present century the spread of the scientific spirit, which 
counts no facts unworthy of notice, together with the attention 
bestowed on the history of doctrine, and the special interest in 
understanding the fortunes of free thought, which sympathy in 
danger created during the rationalist movement, prevented the 
historians from passing lightly over so important a series of facts. 
It may be sufficient to instance, in proof, the notices of unbelief 



(26) Christliche Kirchengeschichte, &c. 45 vols. 1768-1812. The writer of these 
lectures has taken occasion elsewhere (p. 466.) to deplore the want of any com- 
plete history of the English church. He may here add also the want of a history 
in English of European Christianity since the Reformation. 

(27) It may offer an explanation of subsequent references to some church his- 
torians, to name the classification given by Schaff (Bibliotheca Sacra, 1850). After 
treating of the ancient and mediaeval histories, and making the obvious subdi- 
vision of the modern into Romish and Protestant, and subdividing these again 
according to their nations, he arranges the Protestant historians of Germany chro- 
nologically under five classes : (1) the Polemico-orthodox, such as the Magdeburg 
centuriators ; (2) the Pietistic, — Arnold and Weismann ; (3) the Pragmatico-super- 
natural, — Mosheim, Walch, Planck, Schrockh ; (4) the Rationalist, — Sender, 
Henke, Gieseler (in reference to which latter he is perhaps hardly fair) ; (5) the 
Scientific, viz. (a) of the Schleiermacher school, — Neander ; (j8) of the Hegelian, 
unchurchlike and heterodox,— Baur ; (7) of the Hegelian, churchlike and ortho- 
dox, — Dorner. Concerning older church historians, see the late Rev. J. Gr. Dow- 
ling's excellent work, Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History, 
1838 ; and, on the most modern German church historians, see North British 
Review, Nov. 1S58. 



XV111 PREFACE. 

•which occur in Neander's Church History. General histories also 
of literature, like Schlosser's History of Literature in the Eighteenth 
Century, or the more theological one of Hagenbach {Geschichte 
des 18 n Jahrhunderts) incidentally afford information. 

The various works just named are the chief of this class which 
furnish assistance. 

3. After a general preliminary idea of the history has been 
obtained from these sources, in order to prevent being confused 
with details ; it is necessary to resort next to the original sources 
of information, without careful study of which the history must 
lack a real basis. 

In reference to the early unbelievers, the direct materials are 
lost ; but the contemporary replies to these writings remain. 
In the case of later unbelievers, both the works and the answers 
to them exist. It will be presumed that in so large a subject the 
writer cannot have read all the sceptical works which have been 
written, and are here named. With the exception however of 
Averroes and of the Paduan school 28 , in which cases he has 
chiefly adopted second-hand information, and merely himself 
consulted a few passages of the original writers, he has in all 
other instances read the chief works of the sceptical writers, 
sufficiently at least to make himself acquainted with their 
doubts, and in many cases has even made an analysis of their 
works. The reader will pe: ceive by the foot-notes the instances 
in which this applies. 

It may be due to some of the historians who have made a 
special study of particular periods from original sources, to state, 
that so far as his limited experience extends he can bear witness 
to their exactness. Lechler's work on English deism, for ex- 
ample 29 , is a singular example of truthful narrative ; and Leland's 30 , 
though controversial, is worthy of nearly the same praise. 

4. There remains a fourth source of materials in the separate 
monographs on particular men, opinions, or schools of thought. 
We shall enumerate these according to the order of the lectures ; 
dwelling briefly on the majority of them, as being described else- 
where ; and describing at greater length those only which relate 

(28) Lect. III. pp. 100-103. (29) Geschichte des Englischen Deismus, 1841. 

(30) J. Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, 1754. An edition published in 
1837 contains an account of the subsequent history of Deism by Cyrus E. Edmonds. 
It is edited by Dr. W. L. Crown. 



PREFACE. XIX 

to the history of the theological movements in Germany described 
in Lectures VI. and VII. ; inasmuch as references are there fre- 
quently made to these works without a specific description of 
their respective characters. 

In relation to the early struggle of Paganism against Chris- 
tianity 31 , the work of Lardner, Collection of Ancient Jewish and 
Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion (1764-7) 
(Works, vols, vii.-ix.), is well known for carefulness of treatment 
and the value of its references. Portions also of the works of 
J. A. Fabricius, especially his Bibliotheca Grceca and Lux Evangelii 
(1732) are useful in reference to the lost works, and for biblio- 
graphical knowledge : also a monograph by Kortholt, Paganus 
Obtrectator (1703), on the objections made by Christians in the 
early ages, gathered from the Apologies. 

Among recent works it is only necessary to specify one, viz. 
the second series of the Histoire de VEglise Chretienne, by E. de 
Pressense (1861), containing La Grande Lutte du Christianisme 
centre le Paganisme, the account of the struggle both of deeds and 
ideas on the part of the heathens against Christianity, and of the 
apology of the Christians in reply. The sketches of the argu- 
ments used both by the heathens, as recovered from fragments, 
and by the Christian apologists, are most ably executed. The 
frequent references to it in the foot-notes will show the impor- 
tance which the writer attaches to this work 32 . 

The long period of the middle ages, together with early 
modern 33 history, so far as the latter bears upon the present sub- 
ject, is spanned by the aid of four works ; Cousin's Memoir on 
Abelard (1836) ; the La Reforme of Laurent (1861), a professor at 
Ghent; the Averroes of E. Renan (1851), one of the ablest among 
the younger writers of France ; and the Essais de Philosophic 
Religieuse of E. Saisset (1859). All these works are full of learn- 
ing ; some of them are works of mind as well as of erudition. 
Cousin's treatise is well known 34 , and may be said to have re- 
opened the study of mediaeval philosophy. The contents of 
Laurent's work are specified elsewhere. 34 That of Renan, besides 
containing a sketch of the life and philosophy of Averroes, studies 

(31) Lecture II. 

(32) An older work, in some respects similar to Fresscnse's, is Tzchirner's 
Geschichte der Apologetik, 1805. 

(33) Lecture III. (34) See p. 82, note. (35) F. 76, note. 



XX PEEFACE. 

his influence in the three great spheres where it was felt, — the 
Spanish Jews, the Scholastic philosophers, and the Peripatetics 
of Padua. The work of Saisset is a most instructive critical 
sketch on religious philosophy. 

The period of English Deism 36 is treated in two works ; the 
well-known work of Leland above cited, and the one also named 
above by Lechler, now general superintendent at Leipsic ; a work 
full of information, and exceedingly complete ; one of the care- 
fully executed monographs with which many of the younger 
German scholars first bring their names into notice. Though 
the interest of the subject is limited, it well merits a translator 37 . 

There is a deficiency of any similar work on the history of 
infidelity in France* 8 , treating it separately and exhaustively. 
The work which most nearly deserves the description is vol. vi. 
of Henke's KircTiengescMchte 39 . This want however is the less 
felt, because almost every portion of the period has been treated 
in detail by French critics of various schools ; among which some 
of the sketches of Bartholmess, Histoire Critique des Doctrines 
Eeligieuses de la Philosophie Moderne, 1855 ; and of Damiron, 
Memoires pour servir a V Histoire de Philosophie au 18 e siecle; 40 are 
perhaps the most useful for our purpose. One portion of Mr. 
Buckle's History of Civilisation, the best written part of his first 
volume, also affords much information, in the main trustworthy, 
in reference to the intellectual condition of France of the same 
period 41 . 

A description of the events of a period so complex as that of 
the German theological movement of the last hundred years l3 
would have been an object too ambitious to attempt, especially 
when it must necessarily, from the size of the subject, be 
grounded on an acquaintance with single writers of a school, or 
single works of an author used as samples of the remainder ; if 
it were not that abundant guidance is supplied in the memoirs 
by German theologians of all shades of opinion, who have studied 
the history of their country, and not only narrated facts, but 
investigated causes. A few narratives of it also exist by scholars 

(36) Lecture IV. 

(37) The able French critic C. Remusat has bestowed attention on some of the 
English deists. A paper on Shaftesbury has appeared since Lecture IV. was 
printed, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1862. 

(38) In Lecture V. (39) Edited by Vater. (40) See p. 177, note. 
(41) See p. 164, note. (42) Lectures VI. and VII. 



PKEFACE. XXI 

of other countries ; but these are founded on the former. "We. 
shall in the main preserve the order of their publication in enumer- 
ating these various works. 

The materials for the condition of Germany at the beginning 
of the last century, antecedently to the introduction of the new 
influences which created rationalism 43 , are conveyed in Weis- 
mann, Introductio in Memorabilia Eccl. Hist. (1718), and in 
Schrockh, Ghristliche KirchengeschicJiU (1768-1812). The first 
distinct examination however of the peculiar character of the 
movement which ensued, called Rationalism, occurred in the 
discussion as to its meaning and province ; in which Tittmann, 
Rohr, Staiidlin, Bretschneider, Hahn, &c., were engaged; an 
account of which, with a list of their works 44 , is given under the 
explanation of the word " Rationalism" in Note 21, p. 416. The 
chief value of these works at present is, partly to enable us to 
understand how contemporaries viewed the movement while in 
progress ; partly to reproduce the state of belief which existed in 
the older school of rationalists, and its opponents, before the 
reaction toward orthodoxy had fully altered theological thought. 

Whilst the dispute between rationalism and supernaturalism 
was still going on, and the latter was gradually gaining the vic- 
tory, through the reaction under Schleiermacher just alluded to, 
an English writer, Mr. Hugh James Rose 45 , published some 
sermons preached at Cambridge in 1825, which were the means 
of directing attention to the subject both at home and abroad, 
and stimulating investigation into the history. As this work, 
and especially the reply of one writer to it, are often here quoted, 
it may be well to narrate the interesting literary controversy, now 
forgotten, which ensued upon its publication. 

Mr. Rose described the havoc made by the rationalist specula- 
tions, alike in dogma, in interpretation, and in church history, 
and attributed the evil chiefly to the absence of an efficient sys- 
tem of internal church government which would have sup- 
pressed such a movement. He was answered (1828) by Mr. 
(now Dr.) Pusey, then a junior Fellow of Oriel, who, having 
visited Germany, and become acquainted with the forms of 

(43) Lecture VI. p. 213. 

(44) Some of these works -were subsequent to the discussion caused abroad by 
the sermons of Mr. Rose, described below. 

(45) Afterwards Principal of the King's College, London. 



XX11 PREFACE. 

German thought, and the circumstances which had marked its 
development, conceived justly that the reasons of a moral phe- 
nomenon like the overthrow of religious faith in Germany must 
be sought in intrinsic causes, and not merely in an extrinsic 
cause, such as the absence of efficient means of ecclesiastical re- 
pression. In this work 46 , marked by great knowledge of the 
subject, and characterized by just and philosophical reflections, 
the author pointed out an internal law of development in the 
events of the history, and traced the ultimate cause of the move- 
ment to the divorce between dogma and piety which had charac- 
terized the age preceding the rise of rationalism. His motive 
for entering the contest was, not the wish to defend the move- 
ment, for his own position was fixed upon the faith of the creeds ; 
but seems to have been partly a love of truth, which did not like 
to see an imperfect view of a great question set forth ; and partly 
the wish to prevent attention being diverted by Mr. Rose's ex- 
planation, from perceiving the extreme resemblance of the con- 
temporary time in England to that of the age which preceded 
rationalism. 

To this work Mr. Rose replied in a Letter to the Bishop of 
London, misunderstanding Mr. Pusey's object, and conveying the 
impression that he had made himself responsible for the rational- 
ism which it had been the object of the sermons to condemn. He 
felt himself however compelled, in a second edition of the ser- 
mons 47 , to enter more largely into proofs from German literature 
of the position which he had assumed ; and produced a collection 
of literary facts, of value in reference to the movement. 

Mr. Pusey replied (1830) with a triumphant vindication alike 
of his own meaning, and the truth of his own position 48 . The 
work is necessarily less interesting than the former, as it turns 
more upon personal questions, and is more polemical ; but the 
literary information conveyed is equally valuable. 

If we may be permitted to form an opinion concerning the 
controversy, it may perhaps be true to say, that Mr. Rose's fault 
(if indeed we may say so of one who so worthily received honour 
in his generation) was, that he approached the subject from the 
polemic and practical instead of the historic side. His work is 

(46) Historical Inquiry into the Probable Causes of the Rationalist Character 
lately predominant in the Theology of Germany. 

(47) 1829. (48) Historical Inquiry, <fcc. part ii. 1830. 



PEEFACE. XX111 

like the description of a battle-field, which gives an idea of the 
mangled remains that strew the field, but does not recount the 
causes of contest, nor the progress of the action. The work of 
his opponent describes' the mustering of the forces preparatory to 
the action, and the causes which led to the struggle. Perhaps, 
in a few matters of detail, the former writer has taken a truer, 
though a less hopeful, view than his opponent, of certain classes 
of opinions, or of certain men ; but the latter has better preserved 
the historical perspective. The former saw mainly the old forms 
of rationalism, the latter descried the partial return toward the 
faith which had already begun, and has since gone forward so 
energetically 49 . 

These works must always afford much information on the 
topics which they embrace. It is proper however to add, that 
Dr. Pusey, some years ago, recalled the remaining copies of the 
edition of his work. On this account the writer of these lectures, 
when he has had occasion to give references to it, has taken 
care not to quote it for opinions, but only for facts 60 . 

The attack of Mr. Rose on German theology caused replies 
abroad as well as at home. Several German theologians were led 
to a more careful study of their own history and position, to 
which references will be found in Mr. Rose's replies 61 . 

Previously to the publication of Dr. Pusey's treatises, a work 
had been written with a purpose less directly controversial, by 
Tholuck : Abriss Einer Oeschichte der umwalzung, welche seit 1750, 
auf dem Gebiete der Theologie in DeutscJdand statt gefunden, now 
contained in his VermiscMe Schriften, 1839, vol. 2 53 . It is valuable 
for the earlier history of Rationalism. The spirit of it is very 
similar to that of Dr. Pusey's work. Indeed the latter author, 
though not aware of the publication of Tholuck's work, was cog- 
nisant of his views on these questions, through lectures heard 
from him abroad. 

These works however were all previous to the great agitation 
in German theology, which ensued in consequence of Strauss's 

• (49) P. 241. 

(50) Dr. S. Lee, of Cambridge, also appended a dissertation on some points of 
German Rationalism to his Six Sermons on Prophecy, 1830. 

(51) In the Appendix to the second edition of the State of Protestantism in 
Germany, 1829. 

(52) A brief sketch of Tholuck's views is given in the Foreign Quarterly Re- 
viewy vol. 25. 

B 



XXIV PREFACE. 

Leben Jesu, in 1835. After the first excitement of that event had 
passed, we meet with three works, two French and one German, 
in which the history is brought down to a later period. The 
French ones were, the Histoire Critique du Rationalisme, 1841, of 
Amand Saintes, translated 1849 ; and the Etudes Critiques sur le 
Rationalisme Contemporain, of the Abbe H. de Valroger, 1846 ; 
the latter of which works the writer of these lectures has been 
unable to see. The German one was, Der Deutsche Protestantis- 
mus, 1847 63 , and is attributed to Hundeshagen, professor at 
Heidelberg. 

The Critical History of Amand Saintes, though thought by 
the Germans bi to be defective, in consequence of want of sufficient- 
ly separating between the various forms of rational! sm, is more 
replete than any other book with stores of information, and ex- 
tracts arranged in a very clear form 55 . It is very useful, if the 
reader first possesses a better scheme into which to arrange the 
materials. It is written also in a truly evangelical spirit. 

The work of Hundeshagen had a political object as well as a 
religious. It was composed just before the revolution of 1848, 
when Germany was panting for freedom ; and its object was to 
defend the position of the constitutional party in church and 
state ; and with a view to establish the importance of their moral 
and. doctrinal position, he surveyed the recent history of his 
country. 

Hagenbach's Dogmengescliichte (translated), which was pub- 
lished nearly about the same time, also contains a very interesting 
sketch, with valuable notes, of the chief writers and works in the 
movement of German theology. 

The view of the history given in Tholuck and Hundeshagen 



(53) Der Deutsche Protestantismus, seine Vergangenhe.it und seine heutigen Le- 
bensfragen in zusammenhang der gesammten ralionalentwickelung beleuchtct von- 
einem Deutschen. A very instructive article was written in the British Quarterly 
Review, No. 26, May 1851, founded chiefly on this work. 

(54) Kahnis, Internal History of German Protestantism\¥j. T.), p. 169, note. 

(55) An English clergyman, Mr. E. H. Dewar, wrote a small work in 1844, on 
German Protestantism ; based chiefly on Amand Saintes, but in tone like that of 
Mr. Rose. It was considered very unfair, and was answered by Neander in the 
Jahrbiicher fur WissenschafUiclie Kritik, October 1S44 ; and when Mr. Dewar 
replied, was again answered by him in Antwortsc/treiben, 1845. It may be proper 
to name here, that Mr. B. Hawkins's work, Germany, Spirit of her History, &c. 
1838, contains miscellaneous information on many points of German life, which 
illustrate this portion of the history. 



PREFACE. XXV 

is that winch is taken by the school called the " Mediation 
school ". in German theology &6 . The general cause assigned by 
them for scepticism was the separation of dogma and piety ; the 
recovery from the rationalistic state being due to the reunion of 
these elements, which Hundeshagen shows to have been also the 
great feature of the German reformation. 

After an interval of about ten years, when the tendencies 
created by Strauss's movement had become definitely manifest, 
the history was again surveyed in two works, the one, Geschichte 
des Deutschen Protestantismus, by Kahnis (translated 1856), who 
belongs to the Lutheran reactionary party ; the other, Geschichte 
der neuesten Theologie, 1856, by C. Schwarz, whose work is so 
candid and free from party bias, that it is unimportant to remark 
the party to which he belongs b \ 

.The. narrative of Kahnis, originally a series of papers in a 
magazine, is very full of facts, and generally fair ; but it wants 
form. The author's view is, that the sceptical movement arose 
from abandoning the dogmatic expression of revealed truth, con- 
tained in the old Confessions of the Lutheran church ; and he 
considers the reaction of the Mediation school in favour of ortho- 
doxy to be imperfect ; the true restoration being only found by 
returning to the Confessions. 

The work of Schwarz is restricted to the latest fonns of Ger- 
man theology, and goes back no farther than the circumstances 
which led to the work of Strauss. It is unequalled in clearness ; 
bearing the mark of German exactness and fulness, and rivalling 
French histories in didactic power. These two works differ from 
most of those previously named, m being histories of modern 
German theology generally, and not merely of the rationalist 
forms of it. 

Such are the chief sources in which a student may learn the 
view taken by the German critics of different schools, concerning 
the recent church history of their country at various moments of 
its progress. The fulness of this account will be excused, if it 



(56) P. 279. Neander has also written a work, Geschichte des Vtrflussenen hall>- 
Jahrhunderts, (Deutsche Zeitschnft, 1850.) 

(57) He belongs to a new form of the historico-critical' school ; see £Tote 41, 
p. 438, but writes without prejudice. An article elsewhere referred to (p. 7) m 
the Westminster Review, may convey an idea of the facts of Schwarz's work ; but 
it expresses a more definite tendency and opinions than his work. 



XXVI PREFACE. 

provide information concerning works to which reference is made 
in the foot-notes of those lectures which treat of this period. 

In describing the doubts of the present century in France 5S , 
considerable help has been found in the Hist, de la Litterature, &c. 
written by Nettement 59 , and in the Essais of Damiron 60 , as well 
as in criticisms by recent French writers ; which are cited in the 
foot-notes to the lecture which treats of the period. 

The subject of the contemporary doubt in England r '' has been 
felt to be a delicate one. It has however been thought better to 
carry the history down to the present time, and to deal frankly 
in expressing the writer's own opinion. Delicacy forbade the 
introduction of the names r,a of writers into the text of this part 
of the Sermons, but they have been inserted in the foot-notes. 

The mention of one additional source of information will com- 
plete the examination which was proposed. 

It will be observed, that references have been very frequently 
given in the notes, to the Reviews, English and French, and occa- 
sionally German, for papers which treat on the subjects embraced 
in the history. When the writer studied the subject for publica- 
tion, he took care to consult these, as affording a kind of com- 
mentary by contemporaries on the different portions of the his- 

(58) Lect. VII. p. 2S9 seq. (59) P. 290, note. 

(60) Id. (61) Lect. VIII. 

(62) As the relation of the present condition of religious belief in England to 
forms of philosophy may not have been made perfectly clear even by the remarks in 
Lect. VIII. p. 330 seq., and Note 9 (p. 396), it maybe well here to state the sequence 
intended, even at the risk of repetition. The father of the modern philosophy is 
Kant. He first gave the impulse to resolve truth, which was supposed to be 
objective, into subjective forms of thought. Hence, in succeeding systems of phi- 
Josophy, the idea was thought to be of more importance than the facts ; and an 
d priori tendency was created. But in the two philosophers, Schelling and Hegel, 
this developed in different modes. Both sought to approach facts through ideas; 
to both the ideal world was the real : but with the former, truth was absolute •, 
with the latter, relative. In the former case the mind was thrown in upon itself, 
and had a secure ground of truth in the eternal truths of the reason ; in the latter 
it was thrown (ultimately, though not immediately) outward, and taught to trace 
the transition of the ideas in the world, the growth of truth in history. Hence in 
theology, while the tendency of both was to find an appeal for truth independent 
of revelation, the one produced an intuitional religion, the other, proximately, an 
ideal, but ultimately generates scepticism : for the one clings to the eternal ideas 
in the mind, the other views the fleeting, changing aspects of truth in the world. 
The spirit of the former is seen in Carlyle, Coleridge, and Cousin ; the spirit of 
the latter in Kenan and Scherer, and is beginning to appear in the younger writers 
of the English periodical literature. Hence in English theology we have two 
broadly marked divisions; one doctrinal, and the other literary; the former of 
whjch subdivides intp the two just named. 



PEEFACE. XXV11 

tory. It is hoped that the references to those written in the two 
former languages will be found to be tolerably complete. The 
enormous number of those which exist in German, together with 
the absence for the most part of indexes to them, renders it 
probable that many separate papers of great value, the special 
studies by different scholars of passages in the literary history of 
their own nation, have been left unenumerated. The German 
literary periodicals are indeed the solitary source of information 
which the writer considers has not been fully worked for these 
lectures 63 . 

Among the articles in English Reviews, many bear marks of 
careful study ; and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity of 
rescuing them from the neglect which is likely to occur to papers 
written without name, and in periodicals. The freethinking 
Reviews have discussed the opinions of the friends of free thought 
more frequently than the others ; but those here cited are of all 
shades of opinion ; and the writer has found many to be of great 
use, even when differing widely from the conclusions drawn. He 
is glad indeed to take this opportunity of expressing his thanks 
to the unknown authors of these various productions, which have 
afforded him so much instruction, and often so much help. He 
trusts that he has in all cases candidly and fully acknowledged 
his obligations when he has borrowed their materials, or con- 
densed their thoughts. If he has in any case, through inadver- 
tence, failed to do so, he hopes that this acknowledgment will 
be allowed to compensate for the unintentional omission. 

The reader being now in possession both of the purpose de- 
signed in the lectures, and of the sources of the information used 
in their composition, it only remains to add a few miscellaneous 
remarks. 

In the delivery of the lectures, several portions were omitted, 
on account of the excessive length to which they would have 
run. It has not been thought necessary to indicate these passages 
by brackets ; but, as those who heard them may perhaps wish 
to have an enumeration, a list is here subjoined 64 . 

(63) Many references to them are given in Smith's (American) Translation of 
Hagenbach's Hist, of Doctr. 1862. 

(64) In Lect. I. p. 16 (last par.), 35, 36 : in Lect. II. p. 66 (last par.) : in Lect. 
III. p. 80 (last half), 81 (first half), 92, 97 ; 98 (last par.), 99 ; 102, 104, 105, 108, 111 



XXV111 PKEFACE. 

The notes, it will be perceived, are. placed, some at the foot 
of the text, others at the end. Those are put as foot-notes which 
either were very brief, or which supplied information that the 
reader might be supposed to desire in connection with the text. 
Most of those which are appended are of the same character as 
the foot-notes ; i. e. sources of information in reference to the sub- 
jects discussed in, the text. A few however supply information 
on collateral subjects. The Notes 4, 5, and 49, will be found to 
contain a history of Apologetic Literature parallel with the his- 
tory of Free Thought ; and Note 21 discusses the history of some 
technical terms commonly employed in the history of doubt. 

The size of the subject has precluded the possibility of giving 
many extracts from other works ; but it may be permitted to 
remark, that the literary references given are designed to supply 
sources of real and valuable information on the various points in 
relation to which they are cited. It can hardly be necessary to 
state, that the writer must not in any way be held responsible for 
the sentiments expressed in the works to which he may have 
given references. In a subject such as that which is here treated, 
many of the works cited are neutral in character, and many are 
objectionable. But it is right to supply complete literary ma- 
terials, as well as references to works which state both sides of 
the questions considered. 

The index appended is brief, and devoted chiefly to Proper 
Names ; the fulness of the Table of Contents seeming to render 
a longer one unnecessary, which should contain references to 
subjects. 

The writer wishes to express his acknowledgments to the 
chief Librarian of the Bodleian, the Rev. H. O. Coxe, for his 
kindness in procuring for his use a few foreign works which were 
necessary. He avails himself also of this opportunity of expressing 
publicly his thanks to the same individual, for the perseverance 
with which he has accomplished the scheme of providing a 
reading-room in connection with the Bodleian Library, open to 
students in an evening. Those whose time and strength are spent 
in college or private tuition during the mornings, are thus enabled 

(rart) : in Lect. IV. p. 120, 122, 124 (part), 141, 143 ; 145-147 ; 148 : in Lcct. V. p.. 
181, 182 ; 184 ; 196-203 ; in Lect. VI. p. 210,237 ; 250-259 (nearly all) : in Lect, VII. 
p. 281 (part) ; 291-301 : in Lect. VIII. p. 307 (pari) ; 310-339 (for -which a brief 
analysis was substituted) ; p. 344 ; 355, 359 (part). 



PREFACE. XXIX 

to avail themselves of tlie treasures of a library, which until this 
recent alteration was in a great degree useless to many of the 
most active minds and diligent students in the university. 

Thanks are also due to a few other persons for their advice 
and courtesy in the loan of scarce books ; also, in some instances, 
for assistance in the verification of a reference 65 ; and in one case, 
to a distinguished scholar, for his kindness in revising one of the 
Notes. 

The spirit in which the writer has composed the history has 
been stated elsewhere ,ifi . His work now goes forth with no ex- 
traneous claims on public attention. If it be, by the Divine bless- 
ing, the means of affording instruction, guidance, or comfort, to a 
single mind, the writer's labour will be amply recompensed. 

(65) His thanks are especially due to Mr. Macray, the Librarian of the Taj lor 
Institution, for his kindness in the last respect. 

(66) pp. 38, 378. 

Oxford, November 28, 1SG2. 



ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. 



LECTURE I. 
On the subject, method, and purpose of the course of Lectures. 

THE subject stated to be the struggle of the human mind against the 
Christian revelation, in whole or in part. (p. 1.) Explanation of 
the points which form the occasion of the conflict, (pp. 1-3.) 

The mode of treatment, being that of a critical history, includes (p. 3) 
the discovery of (1) the facts, (2) the causes, and (3) the moral. 

The main part of this first lecture is occupied in explaining the second 
of these divisions. 

Importance, if the investigation were to be fully conducted, of carrying 
out a comparative study of religions and of the attitude of the mind in 
reference to all doctrine that rests on authority, (pp. 4-G.) 

The idea of causes implies, 

I. The law of the operation of the causes. 

II. The enumeration of the causes which act according to this 

assumed law. 

The empirical law, or formula descriptive of the action of reason 
on religion, is explained to be one form of the principle of prog- 
ress by antagonism, the conservation or discovery of truth by 
means of inquiry and controversy ; a merciful Providence leaving 
men responsible for their errors, but ultimately overruling evil for 
good. (p. 7.) 

This great fact illustrated in the four Crises of the Christian 
faith in Europe, viz. In the struggle 

(1) With heathen philosophy, about A. D. 160-360. (p. 8.) 

(2) With sceptical tendencies in Scholasticism, in the 

middle ages (1100-1400). (p. 8.) 

(3) With literature, at the Renaissance, in Italy (1400- 

1625). (p. 9.) 



XXX11 ANALYSIS OF THE LECTUEES. [Lect. I. 

(4) With modern philosophy in three forms (p. 11) : viz. 
English Deism in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries (p. 11) ; French Infidelity in the eighteenth 
century ; German Rationalism in the eighteenth and 
nineteenth. 

Proposal to study the natural as well as literary history of these 
forms of doubt. — The investigation separated from inquiries 
into heresy as distinct from scepticism, (p. 13.) 

II. The causes, seen to act according to the law just described, which 
make free thought develope into unbelief, stated to be two- 
fold, (p. 13.) 

1. Emotional causes. — Necessity for showing the relation of the 

intellectual causes to the emotional, both -per se, and be- 
cause the idea of a history of thought,- together with the 
comparative rai-ity of the process here undertaken, implies 
the restriction of the attention mainly to the intellectual, 
(p. 13.) 

Influence of the emotional causes shown, both from psycho- 
logy and from the analysis of the nature of the evidence 
offered in religion (pp. 14, 15). — Historical illustrations of 
their influence, (pp. 15-17.) 

Other instances where the doubt is in origin purely intel- 
lectual (p. 17), but where nevertheless opportunity is seen 
for the latent operation of the emotional, (p. 18.) 

Explanation how far religious doubt is sin. (pp. 19, 20.) 

2. Intellectual causes, which are the chief subject of these 

lectures ; the conjoint influence however of the emotional 
being always presupposed. 

The intellectual causes shown to be (p. 20) : 

(a) the new material of knowledge which arises from the 
advance of the various sciences ; viz. Criticism ; 
Physical, Moral, and Ontological science, (p. 21.) 

(/3) the various metaphysical tests of truth or grounds 
of certitude employed, (p. 22.) 

An illustration of the meaning (pp. 22, 23), drawn from 
literature, in a brief comparison of the types of 
thought shown in Milton, Pope, and Tennyson. 

Statement of the exact position of this inquiry in the 
subdivisions of metaphysical science (pp. 24, 25), 
and detailed explanation of the advantages and 
disadvantages of applying to religion the tests of 
Sense, subjective Forms of Thought, Intuition, and 
Feeling, respectively, as the standard of appeal, 
(pp. 25-32.) 

Advantage of a biographic mode of treatment in the investi- 
gation of the operation of these causes in the history 
of doubt, (pp. 32-34.) 



Lect. II.] ANALYSIS OF THE LECTUEES. XXxiii 

Statement of the utility of the inquiry : 

(1) Intellectually, (o) in a didactic and polemical point of view, 

in that it refers the origin of the intellectual elements in 
error to false philosophy and faulty modes of judging, and 
thus refutes error by analysing it into the causes which 
produce it ; and also (/3) in an indirect contribution to the 
Christian evidences by the historic study of former con- 
tests, (p. 36.) 

(2) Morally, in creating deep pity for the sinner, united with 

hatred for the sin. (p. 36.) 
Concluding remarks on the spirit which has influenced the writer in 
these lectures, (pp. 37, 38.) 



LECTURE II. 

The literary opposition of Heathens against Christianity in the early ayes. 

Tlie first of the four crises of the faith, (pp. 39-74.) Agreement 
and difference of this crisis with the modern, (p. 40.) Sources for 
ascertaining its nature, the original writings of unbelievers being lost, 
(pp. 41, 42.) 

Preliminary explanation of four states of belief among the heathens 
in reference to religion, from which opposition to Christianity would 
arise: (pp. 43-118) viz. 

(1) the tendency to absolute disbelief of religion, as seen in 

Lucian and the Epicurean school, (p. 43.) 

(2) a reactionary attachment to the national creed, — the effect of 

prejudice in the lower orders, and of policy in the educa- 
ted, (pp. 45, 46.) 

(3) the philosophical tendency, in the Stoics, (p. 44) and Neo- 

Platonists. (pp. 45, 46.) 

(4) the mystic inclination for magic rites, (p. 47.) 

Detailed critical history of the successive literary attacks on Chris- 
tianity, (p. 48 seq.) 

1. that of Lucian, about A. D. 170, in the Peregrinus Proteus. 

(pp. 48-50.) 

2. that of Celsus, about the same date. (pp. 50-55.) 

3. that of Porphyry, about 270. (pp. 56-61.) 

4. that of Hierocles about 303, founded on the earlier work of 

Philostratus respecting the life of Apollonius of Tyana. 
(pp. 62-64.) 

5. that of Julian, A. D. 363 ; an example of the struggle in 

deeds as well as in ideas, (pp. 65-68.) 

(Account of the Philopatris of the Pseudo-Lucian. (p. 67.) 
Conclusion ; showing the relation of these attacks to the intellectual 



XXXIV ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. [Lkct. III. 

tendencies before mentioned (p. 69), and to the general intellectual causes 
sketched in Lect. I. (p. 69.) — Insufficiency of these causes to explain the 
whole phenomenon of unbelief, unless the conjoint action of emotional 
causes be supposed, (pp. VI, 72.) 

Analogy of this early conflict to the modern. Lessons from considera- 
tion of the means by which the early Church repelled it. (pp. 72-74.) 



LECTURE III. 

Free Tlwught daring the middle ages, and at the Renaissance ; together 
with its rise in modem times. 

This period embraces the second and third of the four epochs of 
doubt, and the commencement of the fourth. Brief outline of the events 
which it includes, (pp. 75, 76.) 

Second crisis, from A. D. 1100-1400. (pp. 76-92.) It is a struggle 
political as well as intellectual, Ghibellinism as well as scepticism, (p. 76.) 

The intellectual tendencies in this period are four : 

1. The scepticism developed in the scholastic philosophy, as seen in 

the Nominalism of Abelard in the twelfth century. 
Account of the scholastic philosophy, pp. 77-80; and of Abelard 
as a sceptic in his treatise Sic et Kon. (pp. 81-85.) 

2. The mot of progress in religion in the Franciscan book called Tlie 

Everlasting Gospel in the thirteenth century, (pp. 86, 87.) 

3. The idea of the comparative study of religion, as seen in .the 

legend of the book De Tribus Impostoribus in the thirteenth 
century; and in the poetry of the period, (pp. 88, 89.) 

4. The influence of the Mahometan philosophy of Averroes in crea- 

ting a pantheistic disbelief of immortality, (pp. 90, 91.) 

Remarks on the mode used to oppose these movements ; and critical 
estimate of the period, (pp. 91, 92.) 

Third crisis, from 1400-1625. (pp. 93-105.) Peculiarity of this 
period as the era of the Renaissance and of " Humanism," and as the 
transition from mediaeval society to modern, (p. 93.) 

Two chief sceptical tendencies in it : 

(1) The literary tendency in Tuscany and Rome in the fifteenth 
century ; the dissolution of faith being indicated by 

(a) the poetry of the romantic epic. (p. 94.) 

(b) the revival of heathen tastes, (p. 95.) 

Estimate of the political and social causes likely to generate 
doubt, which were then acting, (pp. 97, 98.) The unbelief 
was confined to Italy. — Reasons why so vast a movement as 
the Reformation passed without fostering unbelief, (p. 99.) 



Lect. IV.] ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. XXXV 

2. The philosophical tendency in the university of" Padua in the 
sixteenth century, (p. 99 seq.) 

The spirit of it, pantheism (p. 100), in two forms ; one 
arising from the doctrines of Averroes ; the other seen in 
Pomponatius, from Alexander of Aphrodisias. (p. 101.) 
The relation of other philosophers, such as Bruno and 
Yanini, to this twofold tendency, (pp. 102-104.) 
Remarks on the mode used to oppose doubt (p. 104); and estimate of 
the crisis, (p. 105.) 

Fourth crisis ; (pp. 105-339) commencing in the seventeenth century, 
through the effects of the philosophy of Bacon and Descartes, (p. 106.) 

The remainder of the lecture is occupied with the treatment of the 
influence of Cartesianism, as seen in Spinoza. 

Examination of Spinoza's philosophy (pp. 106-110); of his criticism 
in the Theologico-Politicus (pp. 109-113); and of his indirect influence, 
(p. 113, 114.) 

Concluding remarks on the government of Providence, as witnessed in 
the history of large periods of time, such as that comprised in this lecture, 
(p. 115.) 



LECTURE IV. 

Deism in England previous to A. JD. 1*760. 

This lecture contains the first of the three forms which doubt baa 
taken in the fourth crisis, (p. 116.) — Sketch of the chief events, political 
and intellectual, which influenced the mind of England during the seven- 
teenth century (p. 1 1 7) ; especial mention of the systems of Bacon and 
Descartes, as exhibiting the peculiarity that they were philosophies of 
method, (pp. 117, 118.) 

The history of Deism studied : 

I. Its rise traced, 1640-1700. (pp. 119-125.) 

In this period the religious inquiry has a political aspect, as seen 

(1) in Lord Herbert of Cherbury (Be Veritate and Religio 

Laici) in the reign of Charles I. (pp. 119, 120.) 

(2) In Hobbes's Leviathan, (pp. 121, 122.) 

(3) In Blount (Oracles of Reason, and Life of Apollonius\ 

in the reign of Charles II., in whom a deeper politi- 
cal antipathy to religion is seen. (pp. 123, 124.) 

II. The maturity of Deism (1700-1740), pp. 125-144. This period in- 

cludes (p. 127) : 

1. The examination of the first principles of religion, on its 

doctrinal side, in Toland's Christianity not Mysterious, 
&c. (pp. 126-130.) 

2. Ditto, on its ethical side, in Lord Shaftesbury, (pp. 130, 131.) 

3. An attack on the external evidences, viz. 

On prophecy, by Collins, Scheme of Literal Prophecy, 
&c. (pp. 132-136.) 



XXXVI ANALYSIS OF THE LECTUKES. [Lect. V. 

On Miracles, by "Woolston, Discourses on Miracles. 
(pp. 136-138); and by Arnobius. (p. 143.) 
4. The substitution of natural religion for revealed, 

in Tindal, Christianity as old as the Creation, (pp. 

138-140.) 
in Morgan, Moral Philosopher, (pp. 140, 141.) 
and in Chubb, Miscellaneous Works, (pp. 142, 143.) 

III. The decline of Deism, 1740-1760. (pp. 144-153) : 

1. in Bolingbroke, a combined view of deist objections. 
m (pp. 143-147.) 

2. in Hume, an assault on the evidence of testimony, 

which substantiates miracles, (pp. 147-153.) 

Remarks on the peculiarities of Deism, the intellectual causes which 
contributed to produce it (pp. 154, 155) ; and a comparison of it with the 
unbelief of other periods, (p. 156.) 

Estimate of the whole period ; and consideration of the intellectual 
and spiritual means used for repelling unbelief in it (pp. 157-161); the 
former in the school of evidences, of which Butler is the type, the mention 
of whom leads to remarks on his Analogy (pp. 157-159) ; and the latter in 
spiritual labours like those of Wesley, (pp. 160, 161.) 



LECTURE V. 

Infidelity in France in the eighteenth century ; and unbelief in England 
subsequent to 1760. 

Infidelity in France (pp. 163-194). — This is the second phase of 
unbelief in the fourth crisis of faith. 

Sketch of the state of France, ecclesiastical, political (pp. 164, 165,) 
and intellectual (partly through the philosophy of Condillac, pp. 166, 167), 
which created such a mental and moral condition as to allow unbelief to 
gain a power there unknown elsewhere. — The unbelief stated to be caused 
chiefly by the influence of English Deism, transplanted into the soil thus 
prepared, (p. 203.) 

The history studied (1) in its assault on the Church ; as seen in Vol- 
taire : the analysis of whose character is neces- 
sary, because his influence was mainly due to 
the teacher, not the doctrine taught, (pp. 
169-176.) 

(2) in the transition to an assault on the State, in 
Diderot, (pp. 179, 180) ; the philosophy of 
the Encyclopaedists (p. 177) ; Helvetius (p. 
180); and D'Holbach. (p. 181.) 

(3) in the attack on the State, in Rousseau (pp. 
183-187).— Analysis of the Emile for _ his 
views on religion, (p. 185), and comparison 
with Voltaire, (p. 188.) 



Lect. VI.] ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. XXXVII 

(4) in the Revolution, both the political movement 
and blasphemous irreligion (pp. 188, 189) ; and 
the intellectual movement in Volney (Analysis 
of the Ruines, pp. 191, 192). 
Estimate of the period (pp. 193, 194). 

Unbelief in England, from 1760 to a date a little later than the end 
of the century (pp. 194-209), continued from Lecture IV. 

These later forms of it stated to differ slightly from the former, by being 
partially influenced by French thought, (p. 195.) 

The following instances of it examined : 

(1) Gibbon viewed as a writer and a critic on religion (pp. 

196-199). 

(2) T. Paine: account of his Age of Reason (pp. 199-201). 

(3) The socialist philosophy of R. Owen (p. 202). 

(4) The scepticism in the poetry of Byron and Shelley (pp. 

203-207). 
The last two forms of unbelief, though occurring in the present 
century, really embody the spirit of the last. 

Statement of the mode used to meet the doubt in England during this 
period. Office of the Evidences (pp. 207-209). 



LECTURE VI. 

Free Thought in the Theology of Germany, from 1750-1835. 

This is the third phase of free thought in that which was called the 
fourth crisis of faith. — Importance of the movement, which is called 
" rationalism," as the theological phase of the literary movement of Ger- 
many (p. 210). — Deviation from the plan previously adopted, in that a 
sketch is here given of German theological inquiry generally, and not 
merely of unbelief (p. 211). 

Brief preliminary sketch of German theology since the Reformation. 
Two great tendencies shown in it during the seventeenth century (p. 211). 

(1) The dogmatic and scholastic, science without earnestness (p. 212). 

(2) The pietistic, earnestness without science (p. 213). 

In the first half of the eighteenth century, three new influences are in- 
troduced (pp. 213, 214), which are the means of creating rationalism in the 
latter half: viz. 

(a) The philosophy of Wolff, explained to be a formal 
expression of Leibnitz's principles ; and the evil effect 
of it, accidental and indirect (pp. 214-216). 
(j8) The works of the English deists (p. 216). 
(y) The influence of the colony of French infidels at the 
court of Frederick II. of Prussia (p. 217). 



XXXV111 ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

The subsequent history is studied in three periods (p. 218): viz. 

Period I. (1750-1810). — Destructive in character, inaugurated 
by Sender (pp. 218-234). 

Period II. (1810-1835). — Reconstructive in character, inaugu- 
rated by Schleiermacher (pp. 235-261). 

Period III. (1835 to present time). — Exhibiting definite and final 
tendencies, inaugurated by Strauss (Lect. vii). 

Period I. (1750-1810), is studied under two Sub-periods: 

Sub-period I. (1750-1790, pp. 219-228), which includes three 
movements ; 

(1) Within the church (p. 219 seq.); dogmatic; literary 
in Michaelis and Ernesti ; and freethinking in Semler 
(pp. 221-224), the author of the historic method of 
interpretation. 

(2) External to the church (pp. 224-226) ; literary deism 
in Lessing, and in the Wolfenbiittel fragments of Bei- 
marus (p. 225). 

(3) External to the church ; practical deism, in the educa- 
tional institutions of Basedow (p. 227). 

Sub-period II. (1790-1810, pp. 227-234); the difference caused 
by the introduction of two new influences ; viz. 

(a) The literary, of the court of Weimar and of the great 
men gathered there (p. 228). 

()3) The philosophy of Kant, (the effect of which is ex- 
plained, pp. 229, 230) ; the home of both of which 
was at Jena. 

As the result of these new influences, three movements are visible in 
the Church (p. 230) ; viz. 

(1) The critical " rationalism " of Eichhorn and Paulus, 
the intellectual successors of Semler (pp. 231, 232). 

(2) The dogmatic, more or less varying from orthodoxy, 
seen towards the end of this period in Bretschneider, 
Bohr, and Wegscheider (pp. 233, 234). 

(3) The supernaturalism of Bernhardt and Storr (p. 231). 

Period II. (1810-1835.) — Introduction of four new influences (p. 
235), which completely altered the theological tone ; viz. 

(a) New systems of speculative philosophy; of Jacobi, 
who followed out the material element of Kant's phi- 
losophy (p. 235) ; and of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, 
who followed out the formal (p. 238). 

(|8) The " romantic" school of poetry (p. 239). 

(y) The moral tone, generated by the liberation wars of 
1813. (p. 240.) 

(5) The excitement caused by the theses of Harms at the 
tercentenary of the Beformation in 1817. (pp. 240, 
241. "> 



Lect. VII.] ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. XXXIX 

The result of these is seen (p. 241) in 

(1) An improved doctrinal school under Schleiermacher 
(pp. 241-250), (description of his Glaubenslehre, p. 
245 seq.) ; and under his successors, Neander, &c; 
(pp. 250-252.) 

(2) An improved critical tone (p. 252 seq.), as seen in De 
Wette and Ewald, which is illustrated by an explana- 
tion of the Pentateuch controversy (pp. 254-258). 

Concluding notice of two other movements to be treated in the next 
lecture (p. 259) ; viz. 

(1) an attempt, different from that of Schleiermacher, in the school 
of Hegel, to find a new philosophical basis for Christianity ; and 

(2) the return to the biblical orthodoxy of the Lutheran church. 

Remarks on the benevolence of Providence in overruling free inquiry 
to the discovery of truth, (pp. 259-261) 



LECTURE VII. 

Free Thought in Germany subsequently to 1835 ; and in France during 
the present century. 

Free Thought in Germany (continued). — History of the transition from 
Period II. named in the last lecture, to Period III. (pp. 262-274.) 

Explanation of the attempt, noticed pp. 242, 259, of the Hegelian school 
to find a philosophy of Christianity. Critical remarks on Hegel's system, 
(pp. 263-267); its tendency to create an "ideological" spirit in religion 
(p. 264) : — the school which it at first formed is seen best in Marheinccke. 
(p. 265.) 

The circumstance which created an epoch in German theology was the 
publication of Strauss's Leben Jesu in 1835 (p. 266). Description of it (a) 
in its critical aspect (pp. 267, 270), which leads to an explanation of the 
previous discussions in Germany concerning the origin and credibility of 
the Gospels (pp. 268, 269) ; and (0) in its philosophical, as related to Hegel 
(p. 270) ; together with an analysis of the work (p. 271). Statement of the 
effects produced by it on the various theological parties, (pp. 272, 273.) 

Period m. As the result of the agitation caused by Strauss's work, 
four theological tendencies are seen ; viz. 

(1) One external to the church, thoroughly antichristian, as in 
Bruno Baiter, Feuerbach, and Stirner. (pp. 274-276.) 

(2) The historico-critical school of Tubingen, founded by Chr. 
Bauer, (pp. 277-279.) 

(3) The "mediation" school, seen in Dorner and Rothe. (pp. 
279-282.) 

(4) A return to the Lutheran orthodoxy, (pp. 282-285,) at first 
partly created by an attempt to unite the Lutheran and Re- 
formed churches, (p. 282); seen in the " Neo-Lutheranism " 
of Hengstenberg and Hiivernick, (p. 282), and the " Hyper- 



Xl ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. ILect. VIII. 

Lutheranism " of Stahl and the younger members of the 
school, (pp. 283, 285.) 
Mention of the contemporaneous increase of spiritual life in Ger- 
many, (p. 285:) 
Concluding estimate of the whole movement, (pp. 286, 287); and 
lessons for students in reference to it. (pp. 288, 289.) 

Free Thought in France during the present century (pp. 290-305), 
(continued from Lect. IV. p. 194.) 

In its tone it is constructive of belief, if compared with that of the 
eighteenth century. 
From 1800-1852. 

The speculative thought has exhibited four distinct forms, (p. 290.) 

(1) The ideology of De Tracy, in the early part of the century. 

(2) The theological school of De Maistre, &c. to re-establish the 

dogmatic authority of the Romish church. 

(3) Socialist philosophy, St. Simon, Fourier, Comte. 

(4) The Eclectic school (Cousin, &c.) 

Remarks on the first school. — The recovery of French philosophy 
and thought from the ideas of this school, partly due to the 
literary tone of Chateaubriand, (pp. 290, 291.) 

Influence' of the Revolution of 1830 in giving a stimulus to 
thought, (p. 291.) 

Remarks on the third school. — Explanation of socialism as 
taught by St. Simon (pp. 292, 293); as taught by Fourier 
(pp. 293, 294) ; and difference from English socialism, 
(p. 294.) 

Positivism, both as an offshoot of the last school, and in itself as 
a religion and a philosophy, (pp. 295, 29G.) 

Remarks on the fourth schooL — Eclecticism as taught by Cousin, 
viewed as a philosophy and a religion, (pp. 297-299.) 

Remarks on the second school ; viewed as an attempt to refute 
the preceding schools, (p. 300.) 

From 1852-1862. 

New form of eclecticism under the empire (p. 302), viz. the historic 
method, based on Hegel, as Cousin's was based on Schelling. — E. Renan 
the type. (pp. 302-304.) 

Free thought in the Protestant church (pp. 304, 305) regarded as an 
attempt to meet by concession doubts of contemporaries. 



LECTURE VIII. 

Free Thought in England in the present century: Summary of the 

Course of Lectures : and Inferences in reference to 

present dangers and duties. 

MonERN unbelief in England (continued from Lect. V.): — Introduc- 
tory remarks on the alteration of its tone. (pp. 306, 307.) — The cause of 



Lect. VIII.] ANALYSIS OF THE LECTURES. xli 

which is stated to be a general one, the subjective tone created (p. 308) by 
such influences as, (1) the modern poetry (p. 309), and (2) the two great 
attempts by Bentham and Coleridge to reconstruct philosophy, (pp. 
309, 310.) 

The doubt and unbelief treated in the following order (p. 311): 

(1) That which appeals to Sensational experience and to Physical 

science as the test of truth ; viz. 

(o) Positivism among the educated (p. 312). 

(/3) Secularism or Naturalism among the masses (p. 313) ; 

and in a minor degree, 
(7) The doubts created by Physical science (p. 314). 

(2) That which appeals to the faculty of Intuition (p. 315) ; — ex- 

pressed in literature, by Carlyle, (pp. 316, 317); and by the 
American, Emerson, (p. 317.) 
(Influence also of the modern literature of romance, (p. 318.) 

(3) Direct attacks on Christianity, critical rather than philosophical : 

viz. 

(a) The examination of the historic problem of the devel- 
opment of religious ideas among the Hebrews, by R. 
W. Mackay (pp. 319, 320). 

(0) A summary of objections to revelation, by Mr. Greg, 
Tlie Creed of Christendom (p. 321). 

(7) The examination of the psychical origin of religion and 
Christianitv, by Miss S. Henncll, Thoughts in aid of 
Faith, (p. 323.) 

(4) The deism, and appeal to the Intuitional consciousness, expressed 

by Mr. Theodore Parker (pp. 325, 326), and Mr. F. Newman 
(pp. 326-329). 

(5) The traces of free thought within the Christian church (p. 330) ; 

viz. : 

(a) The philosophical tendencv which originates with 
Coleridge, (pp. 330-333.) 

(fj) The critical tendency, investigating the facts of reve- 
lation, (pp. 334-336.) 

(7) " " " the literature which 

contains it. (pp. 336, 337.) 

This completes the history of the fourth crisis of faith (p. 339), the 
history of which began near the end of Lect. III. at p. 105. 

Summary of the course of lectures, (pp. 339-41. )— Recapitulation of 
the original purpose, which is stated to have been, while assuming the 
potency of the moral, to analyse the intellectual causes of doubt, which 
have been generally left uninvestigated. 

Refutation of objections which might be made ; such as 

(1) One directed against the utility of the inquiry, (p. 342.) 

(2) u " against its uncontroversial character. 

A critical history shown to be useful in the present age, (1) in an edu- 
cational point of view for those who are to be clergymen, and to encoun- 



Xlii ANALYSIS OF THE LECTUEES. [Leot. VIII. 

ter current forms of doubt by word or by writing (pp. 342-345) ; and (2) 
in a controversial point of view, by resolving the intellectual element in 
many cases of unbelief into incorrect metaphysical philosophy ; the value 
of which inquiry is real, even if such intellectual causes be regarded only 
as the conditions, and not the causes, of unbelief, (p. 345.) 

Further objections anticipated and refuted in reference (3) to the 
candour of the mode of inquiry, and the absence of vituperation which is 
stated not to be due to indifference to Christian truth, but wholly to the 
demands of a scientific mode of treatment (p. 346) ; (4) to the absence of 
an eager advocacy of any particular metaphysical theory ; which is due to 
the circumstance that the purpose was to exhibit errors as logical corol- 
laries from certain theories, without assuming the necessary existence of 
these corollaries in actual life (p. 347) ; (5) to the insufficiency of the 
causes enumerated to produce doubt without taking account of the moral 
causes ; which objection is not only admitted, but shown to be at once the 
peculiar property which belongs to the analysis of intellectual phenomena, 
and also a witness to the instinctive conviction that the ultimate cause of 
belief and unbelief is moral, not intellectual ; which had been constantly 
assumed, (p. 347.) 

The Lessons derived from the whole historical survey, (p. 348 seq. ) 

I. What has been the office of doubt in history ? (p. 348.) 

Opposite opinions on this subject stated, (p. 348.) Examination 
of the ordinary Christian opinion on the one hand, which regards 
it as a mischief (p. 348), and of Mr. Buckle's on the other, which 
regards it as a good. (p. 349.) 

1. The office is shown to be, to bring all truths to the test, 
(p. 349.) Historical instances of its value in destroying the 
Eoman catholic errors, (p. 350.) 

2. Free inquiry also shown in some cases to be forced on man 
by the presentation of new knowledge, which demands con- 
sideration, (p. 350.) Denial of the statement that the doubts 
thus created are an entire imitation of older doubt, (p. 352.) 

3. The office of it in the hands of Providence to elicit truth by 
the very controversies which it creates (p. 352) ; the res- 
ponsibility of the inquirer not being destroyed, but the over- 
ruling providence of God made visible, (p. 353.) 

II. What does the history teach, as to the doubts most likely to present 

themselves at this time, and the best modes of meeting them? 
(p. 353.) 

The materials shown to be presented for a final answer to these 
questions, (p. 354.) 

The probability shown from consideration of the state of th( 
various sciences, mechanical, physiological (p. 355), and men- 
tal (p. 355), that no new difficulties can be suggested here 
after, distinct in kind from the present; nor any unknown 
kinds of evidence presented on behalf of Christianity. 

Analogy of the present age as a whole, in disintegration of 
belief, to the declining age of Homan civilization, (p. 356.) 



Lbot. VIII.] ANALYSIS OF THE LEOTUEES. xliii 

The doubts which beset us in the present age stated to be chiefly three 
(p. 357), viz. : 

1. The relation of the natural to the supernatural. 

This doubt is sometimes expressed in a spirit of utter unbe- 
lief; sometimes in a tone of sadness (p. 358), arising from 
mental struggles, of which some are enumerated (p. 358). 
The intellectual and moral means of meeting these doubts, 
(p. 359.) 

2. The relation of the atoning work of Christ to the human 
race. (p. 360.) Explanation of the defective view which 
would regard it only as reconciling man to God, and would 
destroy the priestly work of Christ ; and statement of the 
modes in which its advocates reconcile it with Christianity. 
(p. 361.) 

The importance that such doubts be answered by reason, not 
merely silenced by force, (p. 362.) 

An answer sought by studying the various modes used in 
other ages of the church (p. 362) ; especially by those who 
have had to encounter the like difficulties, e. g. the Alex- 
andrian fathers in the third century, and the faithful in 
Germany in the present, (p. 363.) 

This method shown to have been to present the philosophical 
prior to the historical evidence, in order to create the sense 
of religious want, before exhibiting Christianity as the di- 
vine supply for it. (p. 364.) 

In regard to the historic evidence, three misgivings of the 
doubter require to be met for his full satisfaction (p. 366) ; 
viz. 

(o) The literary question of the trustworthiness of the 
books of the New Testament. 

The mode of meeting this explained, with the possibility 
of establishing Christian dogmas, even if the most 
extravagant rationalism were for argument's sake 
conceded, (p. 367.) 

(j8) The doubt whether the Christian dogmas, and 
especially the atonement, are really taught in the New 
Testament. The value of the fathers, and the prog- 
ress of the. doctrine in church history, shown in 
reference to this question, (p. 368.) 

(7) The final difficulty which the doubter may put, 
whether even apostolic and miraculous teaching is to 
overrule the moral sense, (p. 369.) 

The possibility shown of independent corroboration of 
the apostolic teaching, in the testimony of the living 
church, and the experience of religious men. (p. 371.) 

The utter improbability of error in this part of scriptural 
teaching, even if the existence of error elsewhere 
were for argument's sake conceded (p. 370.) 

Difference of this appeal from that of Schleiermacher to 
the Christian consciousness. 



xliv NOTES APPENDED. 

3. The relation of the Bible to the church, whether it is a record 

or an authority, (p. 3*72.) 
Statement of the modes of viewing the question in different 

ages. (p. 373.) 
The Bible an authority ; but the importance shown of using 

wisdom in not pressing the difficulties of scripture on an 

inquirer, so as to quench incipient faith, (p. 374.) 

The mention of the emotional causes of doubt conjoined with the 
intellectual, a warning that, in addition to all arguments, the help of 
the divine Spirit to hallow the emotions must be sought and expect- 
ed, (p. 375.) 

Final lesson to Christian students, that in all ages of peril, earnest 
men have found the truth by the method of study united to prayer, 
(pp. 376-379.) 



NOTES APPENDED. 



LECTURE I. 

Noto 1. Subdivisions of Historical Inquiry .... page 379 

2. The comparative study of Keligions .... 380 

3. Zend and Sanskrit Literature 381 

4. The Controversy between. Christians and Jews . . 384 

5. The Contest of Christianity with Mahometanism . . 387 

6. Unitarianism 391 

7. Classification of Metaphysical Inquiries .... 393 

8. Quotation from Guizot on Prayer ... . . 395 

9. On the modern view of the historical method in Philosophy 396 



LECTURE II. 

10. Neo-Platonism . . ' 399. 

11. The Pseudo-Glementine Literature .... 400 

12. The absence of references to Christianity in Heathen writers 

of the second century ... ... 400 

13. The Peregrinus Proteus of Lucian . . . . 402 

14. The work of Celsus . 403 

15. The charges against Christians, and causes of persecution, in 

the second century . 404 

1 6. Modern criticism on the book of Daniel . . ' . . 407 

17. The Reply of Eusebius to Hierocles . . . . • 408 

18. The Philopatris of the Pseudo-Lucian .... 409 

19. The work of Julian against Christianity . . . 409 



NOTES APPENDED. xlr 

LECTURE III. 

Note 20. The Legendary Book "De Tribus Impostoribus " . page 412 

LECTURE IT. 

21. On some technical terms in the History of Unbelief, viz. 
Infidel, Atheist, Pantheist, Deist, Naturalist, Freethinker, 
Rationalist, Sceptic • 47 3 

22. Woolston's " Discourses on Miracles " .... 420 

LECTURE V. 

23. The literary coteries of Paris in the eighteenth century . 421 

24. The term Ideology 421 

25. The works of Dr. Geddes 422 

26. The works of Dr. Conyers Middleton . . . 423 

LECTURE VI. 

27. On Pietism in Germany in the seventeenth century . 424 

28. Classification of Schools of Poetry in Germany . 425 

29. The Wolfenbuttel Fragments . . . ... 425 

30. Schleiermacher's early studies 427 

3i. Schleiermacher's works 428 

32. On some German Critical Theologians ; De Wette, Ewald, 

&c 429 

33. The name Jehovah 431 

34. The use of the names of Deity in the composition of Hebrew 

proper names 431 

LECTURE VII. 

35. The Hegelian Philosophy 432 

36. The Christology of Strauss 433 

37. The writings of Strauss. . . i . . 434 

38. The replies to Strauss ...... 435 

39. The Tubingen School . 436 

40. The Theologian Rothe 437 

41. The most modern Schools of Philosophy and Theology in 

Germany . ... . . . . . 438 

42. Table exhibiting a classification of German Theologians 439 

43. The modern Theology of Switzerland and Holland . 444 

44. The Eclectic School of France (Cousin) . . . 446 



xlvi NOTES APPENDED. 

Note 45. The Catholic reactionary School of France (De Maistre) page 447 
46. The modern School of Free Thought in the Protestant 

Church of France 448 



LECTURE VIII. 

47. Modern opinions with respect to Mythology . . 450 

48. The office of the External and Internal branches of Evidence 45 1 

49. The History of the Christian Evidences . . . . 452 

50. On the History of the doctrine of Inspiration . . 473 



LECTUKE I 



OF LECTURES. 



Luke vii. 51. 



Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell you, nay ; but 
rather division. 

rpilE present course of lectures relates to one of the 
A conflicts exhibited in the history of the Church ; viz. 
the struggle of the human spirit to free itself from the 
authority of the Christian faith. 

Christianity offers occasion for opposition by its 
inherent claims, independently of accidental causes. 
For it asserts authority over religious belief in virtue 
of being a supernatural communication from God, and 
claims the right to control human thought in virtue of 
possessing sacred books which are at once the record 
and the instrument of this communication, written by 
men endowed with supernatural inspiration. The in- 
spiration of the writers is transferred to the books, the 
matter of which, so far as it forms the subject of the 
revelation, is received as true because divine, not 
merely regarded as divine because perceived to be true. 
The religion, together with the series of revelations of 
which it is the consummation, differs in kind from ethnic 
religions, and from human philosophy ; and the sacred 
literature differs in kind from other books. Each is 
unique, a solitary miracle of its class in human history. 



25 LECTURE I. 

The contents also of the sacred books bring them into 
contact with the efforts of speculative thought. Though 
at first glance they might seem to belong to a different 
sphere, that of the soul rather than the intellect, and 
to possess a different function, explaining duties rather 
than discovering truth ; yet in deep problems of physi- 
cal or moral history, such as Providence, Sin, Keeon- 
ciliation, they supply materials for limiting belief in the 
very class of subjects which is embraced in the compass 
of human philosophy. 

A conflict accordingly might naturally be antici- 
pated, between the reasoning faculties of man and a 
religion which claims the right on superhuman au- 
thority to impose limits on the field or manner of their 
exercise ; the intensity of which at various epochs 
would depend, partly upon the amount of critical ac- 
tivity, and partly on the presence of causes which might 
create a divergence between the current ideas and those 
supplied by the sacred literature. 

The materials are wanting for detecting traces of 
this struggle in other parts of the world than Europe ; 
but the progress of it may be fully observed in Eu- 
ropean history, altering concomitantly with changes in 
the condition of knowledge, or in the methods of seek- 
ing it ; at first as an open conflict, philosophical or 
critical, with the literary pagans, subsiding as Christi- 
anity succeeded in introducing its own conceptions into 
every region of thought ; afterwards reviving in the 
middle ages, and gradually growing more intense in 
modern times as material has been offered for it through 
the increase of knowledge or the activity of specula- 
tion ; varying in name, in form, -in degree, but refer- 
able to similar causes, and teaching similar lessons. 

It is the chief of these movements of free thought in 
Europe which it is my purpose to describe, in their 
historic succession and their connection with intellec- 
tual causes. 

We must ascertain the facts ; discover the causes ; 
and read the moral. These three inquiries, though dis- 
tinct in idea, cannot be disjoined in a critical history. 



LECTURE I. O 

The facts must first be presented in place and time : the 
history is thus far a mere chronicle. They must next 
be combined with a view to interpretation. Yet in 
making this first -combination, taste guides more than 
hypothesis. The classification is artistic rather than 
logical, and merely presents the facts with as much 
individual vividness as is compatible with the preserva- 
tion of the perspective requisite in the general historic 
picture. At this point the artistic sphere of history 
ceases, and the scientific commences as soon as the 
mind searches for any regularity or periodicity in the 
occurrence of the facts, such as may be the effect of 
fixed causes. If an empirical law be by this means 
ascertained to exist, an explanation of it must then be 
sought in the higher science which investigates mind. 
Analysis traces out the ultimate typical forms of 
thought which are manifested in it ; and if it does not 
aspire to arbitrate on their truth, it explains how they 
have become grounds on which particular views have 
been assumed to be true. The intellect is then satis- 
fied, and the science of history ends. But the heart 
still craves a further investigation. It demands to view 
the moral and theological aspects of the subject, to har- 
monize faith and discovery, or at least to introduce the 
question of human responsibility, and reverently to 
search for the final cause which the events subserve in 
the moral purposes of providence. The drama of his- 
tory must not develope itself without the chorus to 
interpret its purpose. The artistic, — the scientific, — 
the ethical, — these are the three phases of history. (1) 

The chief portion of the present lecture will be de- 
voted to explain *the mode of applying the plan just 
indicated ; more especially to develope the second of 
these three branches, by stating the law which has 
marked the struggle of free thought with Christianity, 
and illustrating the intellectual causes which have been 
manifested in it. 

In searching for such a law, or such causes, we 
ought not to forget that, if we wished to lay a sound 
basis for generalization, it would be necessary not to 



4 LECTURE I. 

restrict our attention to the history of Christianity, but 
to institute a comparative study of religions, ethnic or 
revealed, in order to trace the action of reason in the 
collective religious history of the race. Whether the 
religions of nature be regarded as the distortion of 
primitive traditions, or as the spontaneous creation of 
the religious faculties, the agreement or contrast sug- 
gested by a comparison of them with the Hebrew 
and Christian religions, which are preternaturally re- 
vealed, is most important as a means of discovering the 
universal laws of the human mind ; the exceptional 
character which belongs to the latter member of the 
comparison increasing rather than diminishing the value 
of the study. All alike are adjusted, the one class 
naturally and accidentally, the other designedly and 
supernaturally, to the religious elements of human 
nature. All have a subjective existence as aspirations 
of the heart, an objective as institutions, and a history 
which is connected with the revolutions of literature 
and society. (2) 

Comparative observation of this kind gives some 
approach to the exactness of experiment ; for we watch 
providence as it were executing an experiment . for our 
information, which exhibits the operations of the same 
law under altered circumstances. If, for example, we 
should find that Christianity was the only religion, the 
history of which presented a struggle of reason against 
authority, we should pronounce that there must be 
peculiar elements in it which arouse the special opposi- 
tion ; or if the phenomenon be seen to be common to 
all creeds, but to vary in intensity with the activity of 
thought and progress of knowledge, this discovery 
would suggest to us the existence of a law of the human 
mind. 

Such a study would also furnish valuable data for 
determining precisely the variation of form which 
alteration of conditions causes in the development of 
such a struggle. In the East, the history of religion, 
for which material is supplied by the study of the Zend 
and Sanskrit literature, (3) would furnish examples of 



LECTURE I. 5 

attempts made by philosophers to find a rational solu- 
tion of the problems of the universe, and to adjust the 
theories of speculative thought to the national creed 
deposited in supposed sacred books. And though, in a 
western nation such as Greece, the separation of religion 
from philosophy was too wide to admit of much paral- 
lel in the speculative aspect of free thought, yet in ref- 
erence to the critical, many instances of the application 
of an analogous process to a national creed may be seen 
in the examination made of the early mythology, the 
attempt to rationalize it by searching for historical data 
in it, or to moralize it by allegory. 1 Again, within the 
sphere of the Hebrew religion which, though super- 
naturally suggested, developed in connexion with human 
events so as to admit the possibility of the rise of men- 
tal difficulties in the progress of its history, how much 
hallowed truth, both theoretical and practical, might be 
learned from the divine breathings of pious inquirers, 
such as the sacred authors of the seventy-third Psalm, 
or of the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, which give 
expression to painful doubts about Providence, not fully 
solved by religion, but which nevertheless faith was 
willing to leave unexplained. 2 If in the Oriental sys- 

1 The attitude of the mind towards the national mythology in succes- 
sive ages of Greek history has been treated by Grote, History of Greece, 
vol I. ch. 16. 

2 See Quinet's CEuvres, t. i. c. 5, and especially § 4. On the doubts 
expressed in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes respectively, see the 
article Job by Hengstenberg in Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, 
(reprinted in a volume of Hengstenberg's miscellaneous works), and the 
article Ecclesiastes by Mr. Plumptre in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 
Por the free-thinking inquiry into the two books, see the article on Job in 
the Westminster Review, October 1853, founded mainly on Hirzel ; and 
that on Ecclesiastes in the National Revieiv, No. 27, for January 1862, 
founded chiefly on Hitzig. E. Renan, in his work on Job, and others, have 
studied the doubts expressed in it as an internal evidence for its date. 
Very full information in reference to both books may be found in Dr. S. 
Davidson's Introd. to the Old Testament (1S62), vol. ii. p. 174 seq., 352 
seq. It is deeply interesting to observe, not merely that the difficulties 
concerning Providence felt by Job refer to the very subjects which pain- 
fully perplex the modern mind, but also that the friends of Job exhibit the 
instinctive tendency which is observed in modern times to denounce his 
doubt as sin, not less than to attribute his trials to evil as the direct cause. 
These two books of Scripture, together with the seventy-third Psalm, have 



6 LECTURE I. 

terns free thought is seen to operate ori a national creed 
by adjusting it to new ideas through philosophical dog- 
matism ; if in the Greek by explaining it away through 
scepticism ; in the Hebrew it is hushed by the holier 
logic of the feelings. The two former illustrate steps 
in the intellectual progress of free thought ; the last 
exhibits the moral lesson of resignation aud submission 
in the soul of the inquirer. 

Nor ought this method of comparison to be laid 
aside even at this point. It would be requisite, for a 
full discovery of the intellectual causes that the gener- 
alization should be carried further, and the operations 
of free thought watched in reference to other subjects 
than religion. 3 Eeason in its action, first on Chris- 
tianity both in Europe and elsewhere, secondly on Jew- 
ish and heathen religions, lastly on any body of truth 
which rests on traditional authority, — these would be 
the scientific steps necessary for eliminating accidental 
phenomena, and discovering the real laws which have 
operated in this branch of intellectual history. The 
suggestion of such a plan of study, though obviously too 
large to be here pursued, may ofifer matter of thought 
to reflective minds, and may at least help to raise the 
subject out of the narrow sphere to which it is usually 
supposed to belong. The result of the survey would 
confirm the view of the struggle now about to be given 
which is suggested by European history. 

"When any new material of thought, such as a new 
religion which interferes with the previous standard of 
belief, is presented to the human mind ; or when con- 
versely any alteration in the state of knowledge on 
which the human mind forms its judgment, imparts to 

an increasing religious importance as the world grows older. " The things 
written aforetime were written for our learning." 

3 Attention, for example, should be directed to the efforts of the mind 
in emancipating itself (1) from particular forms of political government, 
or social arrangements, or artificial laws, in the struggle against the feudal 
system, and in the development of political liberty in modern times, or (2) 
from traditional systems of scientific teaching, as the Ptolemaic theory of 
astronomy, or the Cartesian of vortices. The aosencc too of such attempts 
in the stagnation of Eastern life is an instructive negative instance for 
study. 



LECTURE I. 7 

an old established religion an aspect of opposition which 
was before unperceived ; the religion is subjected to the 
ordeal of an investigation. Science examines the doc- 
trines taught by it, criticism the evidence on which they 
profess to rest, and the literature which is their expres- 
sion. And if such an investigation fail to establish the 
harmony of the old and the new, the result takes two 
forms : either the total rejection of the particular re- 
ligion, and sometimes even of the supernatural gen- 
erally, or else an eclecticism which seeks by means of 
philosophy to discover and appropriate the hidden truth 
to which the religion was an attempt to give expres- 
sion. 

The attack however calls forth the defence. Accord- 
ingly the result of this action and reaction is to pro- 
duce scientific precision, either apologetic or dogmatic, 
within the religious system, and scepticism outside of 
it ; both reconstructive in purpose, but the former 
defensive in its method, the latter destructive. The 
elements of truth which exist on both sides are brought 
to light by the controversy, and after the struggle has 
passed become the permanent property of the world. 

These statements, w T hich convey a general expres- 
sion for the influence of free thought in relation to re- 
ligion, are verified in the history of Christianity. 

There are four epochs at which the struggle of 
reason against the authority of the Christian religion 
has been especially manifest, each characterized by 
energy and intensity of speculative thought, and ex- 
hibiting on the one hand partial or entire unbelief, or 
on the other a more systematic expression of Christian 
doctrine ; epochs in fact of temporary peril, of perma- 
nent gain. 4 

4 It is proper to express my obligations for a few hints in this part of 
the lecture to an able historic sketch of modern German thought, based on 
the Geschichte der neuesten TJieologie of C. Schwartz, in the Westminster 
Review, April 185*7 (especially p. 333). The enumeration of the epochs 
which follows nevertheless occurred to me for the most part independently 
of those suggestions, and had been previously expressed in public. A 
classification of a different kind will be found in Reimannus Historia 
Atheismi, 1*725, p. 315. 



8 LECTURE I. 

In the first of these periods, extending from the 
second to the fourth century, Christianity is seen in 
antagonism with forms of Greek or Eastern philosophy, 
and the existence is apparent of different forms of scep- 
ticism or reason used in attack. The very attempt of 
the Alexandrian school of theology to adjust the mys- 
teries of Christianity and of the Bible to speculative 
thought, by a well meant but extravagant use of alle- 
gorical interpretation, is itself a witness of the presence 
or pressure of free thought. The less violent of the two 
forms of unbelief is seen in the Gnostics, the rationalists 
of the early Church, who summoned Christianity to the 
bar of philosophy, and desired to appropriate the por- 
tion of its teachings which approved itself to their 
eclectic tastes ; the more violent kind in the rejection 
of Christianity as an imposture, or in the attempts made 
to refer its origin to psychological causes, on the part 
of the early enemies of Christianity, Celsus and Julian, 
prototypes of the positive unbelievers of later times. 
The Greek theology, which embodied the dogmatic 
statements in which the Christian Church under the 
action of controversy gave explicit expression to its 
implicit belief, is the example of the stimulus which the 
pressure of free thought gave to the use of reason in 
defence. 

As we pass down the course of European history, 
the Pagan literature which had suggested the first attack 
disappears : but as soon as the elements of civilization, 
which survived the deluge that overwhelmed the Roman 
empire, had been sufficiently consolidated to allow of 
the renewal of speculation, a repetition of the contest 
may be observed. 

The revived study of the Greek philosophers, and of 
their Arabic commentators introduced from the Moorish 
universities of Spain, with the consequent rise of the 
scholastic philosophy in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies, furnished material for a renewal of the struggle 
of reason against authority, a second crisis in the history 
of the Church. The history of it becomes complicated 
by the circumstance that free thought, in the process of 



LECTUEE I. 9 

disintegrating the body of authoritative teaching, now 
began to assume on several occasions a new shape, a 
kind of incipient Protestantism. Doubting neither 
Christianity nor the Bible, it is seen to challenge 
merely that part of the actual religion which, as it con- 
ceived, had insinuated itself from human sources in the 
lapse of ages. Accordingly, the critical independence 
of Nominalism, in a mind like that of Abelard, repre- 
sents the destructive action of free thought, partly as 
early Protestantism, partly as scepticism ; while the 
series of noted Realists, of which Aquinas is an exam- 
ple, that tried anew to adjust faith to science, and thus 
created the Latin theology, represents the defensive 
action of reason. The imparting scientific definition to 
the immemorial doctrines of the Church constituted the 
defence. 

In the later middle ages, however, philosophy grad- 
ually succeeded in emancipating itself so entirely from 
theology, that when the Renaissance came, and a large 
body of heathen thought was introduced into the cur- 
rent of European life by means of ancient literature, a 
third crisis occurred. The independence passed into 
open revolt, and, fostered by political confusion and 
material luxury, expressed itself in a literature of un- 
belief. 

The mental awakening which had commenced in 
art and extended to literature paved the way for a spir- 
itual awakening. The Reformation itself, though the 
product of a deep consciousness of spiritual need, an 
emancipation of soul as well as mind, is nevertheless a 
special instance of the same dissolution of mediaeval life, 
and must therefore be regarded as belonging to the 
same general movement of free thought, though not to 
that sceptical form of it which comes within the field of 
our investigation. For Protestantism, though it be 
scepticism in respect of the authority of the traditional 
teaching of the Church, yet reposes implicitly on an 
outward authority revealed in the sacred books of holy 
Scripture, and restricts the exercise of freedom within 
the limits prescribed by this authority ; whereas scepti- 



^ 



10 LECTURE I. 

cism proper is an insurrection against the outward au- 
thority or truth of the inspired books, and reposes on 
the unrevealed, either on consciousness or on science. 
The one is analogous to a school of art which desires to 
reform itself by the use of ancient models ; the other to 
one which professes to return to an unassisted study of 
nature. The spiritual earnestness which characterized 
the Reformation prevented the changes in religious be- 
lief from developing into scepticism proper ; and the 
theology of the Reformation is accordingly an example 
of defence and reconstruction as well as of revulsion. 

During the century which followed, mental activity 
found employment in other channels in connexion with 
the political struggles which resulted from the religious 
changes. But the seventeenth age was another of those 
epochs which form crises in the history of the human 
mind. The reconstruction at that time of the methods 
on which science depends, by Bacon from the empirical 
side, by Descartes from the intellectual, created as great 
a revolution in knowledge as the Renaissance had pro- 
duced in literature or the Reformation in religion ; and 
a body of materials was presented from which philoso- 
phers ventured to criticise the Bible and the dogmatic 
teaching of the Church. This fourth great period of 
free thought, which extends to the present time, has 
been marked by more striking events than former ones. & 
Though the movement relates to a similar sphere, the 
history is rendered more complex by union with litera- 
ture, and connexion as cause or effect w r ith social 
changes, as well as by the reciprocal operation of its 
influence in different countries. Language, wdiich is 

6 The author (supposed to be Hundeshagcn) of Dcr Deutsche Proicx- 
tantismus thus expresses himself (§ 6.) : "In the history of the world 
there are four successive periods in which open unbelief and unconcealed 
enmity to Christianity made the tour in some degree among the chief 
nations of Europe. Italy made the beginning in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth century ; England and France followed in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth ; the series closed in Germany in the nineteenth." The first 
of the four crises in our text occurred in the ancient world ; the second is 
mediaeval ; the third, at the moment of transition into the modern history, 
is the Italian crisis of the quotation just cited ; the three others therein 
named make up the fourth in our enumeration. 



LECTURE I. 11 

always a record of opinion, popular or scientific, 6 classi- 
fies the forms of this last great movement of free thought 
under three names, viz. Deism in England in the early 
part of the eighteenth century ; Infidelity in France in 
the latter part of it ; and Eationalism in Germany in 
the nineteenth ; movements which exhibit characteris- 
tics respectively of the three nations, and of their intel- 
lectual and general history. English Deism, the prod- 
uct of the reasoning spirit which was stimulated by 
political events, directed itself against the special reve- 
lation of Christianity from the stand-point of the re- 
ligion of natural reason, and ran a course parallel 
with the gradual emancipation of the individual from 
the power of the state. French infidelity, breathing the 
spirit of materialist philosophy, halted not till it brought 
its devotees even to atheism, and mingled itself with 
the great movements of political revolution, which ulti- 
mately reconstituted French society. German Eation- 
alism, empirical or spiritual, 7 in two parallel develop- 
ments, the philosophical and the literary, neither coldly 
denied Christianity with the practical doubts of the 
English deists, nor flippantly denounced it as imposture 
with the trenchant and undiscriminating logic of the 
French infidels ; but appreciating its beauty with the 
freshness of a poetical genius, and regarding it as one 
phase of the religious consciousness, endeavoured, by 
means of the methods employed in secular learning, to 
collect the precious ideas of eternal truth to which 
Christianity seemed to it to give expression, and by 
means of speculative criticism to exhibit the literary and 
psychological causes which it supposed had overlaid 
them w T ith error. 

Nor has the activity of reason used in defence been 
less manifest in these later movements. The great 

6 On the office of language, and the changes to which it is liable, con- 
sult the chapter on the "Natural History of the variations in the meaning 
of terms," in J. S. Mill's Logic (vol. ii. b. 4. ch. 5.) An explanation of 
many of the terms which occur in the history of doubt, viz., Deism, 
Eationalism, &c. will be found in Note 21. at the end of these Lectures. 

7 "Empirical," as in Lessing and Paulus ; " Spiritual," as in the later 
schools. See Lect. VI. and VII. 



12 LECTURE I. 

works on the Christian evidences are the witness to its 
presence ; and the deeper and truer appreciation of 
Christianity now shown in every country, and the in- 
creasing interest felt in religion, are the indirect effect, 
under the guidance of divine Providence, of the stirring 
of the religious apprehension "by controversy. 8 

"We have thus at once exhibited the province which 
will be hereafter investigated in detail, and stated the 
general law observable in the conflict between free 
thought and Christianity. The type reappears, perpet- 
uated by the fixity of mind, though the form varies 
under the force of circumstances. Christianity being 
stationary and authoritative, thought progressive and 
independent, the causes which stimulate the restlessness 
of the latter interrupt the harmony which ordinarily 
exists between belief and knowledge, and produce crises 
during which religion is re-examined. Disorganization 
is the temporary result ; theological advance the subse- 
quent. Whatever is evil is eliminated in the conflict ; 
whatever is good is retained. Under the overruling of 
a beneficent Providence, antagonism is made the law 
of human progress. 

The restriction of our inquiry to the consideration of 
the free action of reason will cause our attention to be 
almost entirely confined to the operation of reason in 
its attack on Christianity, to the neglect of the evidences 
which the other office of it has presented in defence ; 
and will also exclude altogether the study of struggles, 
where the opposition to Christianity has rested on an 
appeal to the authority of rival sacred books ; such for 
example as the conflict with rival religions like the Jew- 
ish (4) or Mahometan (5) ; as well as of heresies which, 
like the Socinian (6), claim, however unjustly, to rest on 
the authority of the Christian revelation. 

The law thus sketched of this struggle needs fuller 
explanation. We must employ a more exact analysis 
to gain a conception of the causes which have operated 

8 A brief view of the history of the Christian evidences will be found 
in Note 49 appended to these Lectures. 



LEGTTJEE I. 13 

at different periods to make free thought develop into 
unbelief. 

It will be obvious that the causes must depend, 
either upon the nature of the Christian religion, which 
is the subject, or of the mind of man, which is the agent 
of attack. The former were touched upon in the open- 
ing remarks of this lecture, and may be reconsidered 
hereafter ; 9 but it is necessary to gain a general view of 
the latter before treating them in their application in 
future lectures. 

These causes, so far as they are spiritual and discon- 
nected from admixture with political circumstances, 
may be stated to be of two kinds, viz. intellectual and 
moral ; the intellectual explaining the types of thought, 
the moral the motives which have from time to time 
existed. 10 The actions, and generally the opinions of a 
human being, are the complex result arising from the 
union of both. Yet ' the two elements, though closely 
intertwined in a concrete instance, can be apprehended 
separately as objects of abstract thought ; and the forms 
of manifestation and mode of operation peculiar to each 
can be separately traced. 

In a history of thought, the antagonism created by 
the intellect rather than by the heart seems the more 
appropriate subject of study, and will be almost exclu- 
sively considered in these lectures. Nevertheless a 
brief analysis must be here given of the mode in which 
the moral is united with the intellectual in the formation 
of opinions. This is the more necessary, lest we should 
seem to commit the mistake of ignoring the existence 

9 Yiz. toward the close of Lect. VIII. 

10 The moral causes of unbelief have been frequently discussed, but the 
intellectual rarely. Van Mildert has collected, in his Boyle Lectures (note 
to Lect. XXIV.), references to many valuable authors where the moral sins 
of pride and impiety are discussed ; and J. A. Fabricius (Delect. Argument. 
1725.) has devoted a chapter to the literature of the subject (c. 36. p. 653.) 
Dr. Ogilvie wrote in 1783 a separate work on the causes of the recent un- 
belief; but the causes alleged by him, though well treated in the details, 
are superficial. A satisfactory discussion of this and cognate topics con- 
nected with unbelief is given in a popular but instructive book, Infidelity, 
its aspects, causes, and agencies, a Prize Essay (1853) of the Evangelical 
Alliance, by the Rev. T. Pearson, Eyemouth, N. B. 



H- 



LECTXJKE I. 



or importance of the emotional element, if the restric- 
tion of our point of view to the intellectual should here- 
after prevent frequent references to it. 

The influence of the moral causes in generating 
doubt, though sometimes exaggerated, is nevertheless 
real. Psychological analysis shows that the emotions 
operate immediately on the will, and the will on the 
intellect. Consequently the emotion of dislike is able 
through the will to prejudice the judgment, and cause 
disbelief of a doctrine against which it is directed. 11 
Nor can we doubt that experience confirms the fact. 
Though we must not rashly judge our neighbour, nor 
attempt to measure in any particular mind the precise 
amount of doubt which is due to moral causes, yet it is 
•evident that where a freethinker is a man of immoral 
or unspiritual life, whose interests incline him to disbe- 
lieve in the reality of Christianity, his arguments may 
reasonably be suspected to be suggested by sins of char- 
acter, and by dislike to the moral standard of the Chris- 
tian religion, and, though not on this account necessarily 
undeserving of attention, must be watched at every 
point with caution, in order that the emotional may be 
eliminated from the intellectual causes. 

It is also a peculiarity belonging to the kind of evi- 
dence on which religion rests for proof, that it offers an 
opportunity for the subtle influence of moral causes, 
where at first sight intellectual might seem alone to 
act. For the evidence of religion is probable, not de- 
monstrative ; and it is the property of probable evidence 
that the character and experience determine the com- 
parative weight which the mind assigns in it to the 
premises. 12 In demonstrative evidence there is no op- 

11 Compare some remarks on this point in "Whately's Rhetoric (part 2. 
ch. i. § 2.) 

12 Proof being of two kinds, viz. antecedent probability, o.k6s, (Arist. 
Rhet. i. 2. § 15. which shows the cause ; and evidence, ffrjutTov, which shows 
the fact ; it is clear that the latter, if of the positive kind, reK/u-tipiov, is 
demonstrative ; but if merely of the probable kind, or of the nature of cir- 
cumstantial evidence, avwwpLov <rr)/j.€?ov, requires the antecedent probability 
in addition for the purpose of effecting conviction. Otherwise the evidence 
may seem to be an accidental concatenation of circumstances, unless ex- 



LECTURE I. 15 

portunity for the intrusion of emotion ; but in probable 
reasoning the judgment ultimately formed by the mind 
depends often as much upon the antecedent presump- 
tions brought to the investigation of the subject, as 
upon the actual proofs presented ; the state of feeling 
causing a variation in the force with which a proposi- 
tion commends itself to the mind at different times. 
The very subtlety of this influence, which requires care- 
ful analysis for its detection, causes it to be overlooked. 
Accordingly, in a subject like religion, the emotions 
may secretly insinuate themselves in the preliminary 
step of determining the weight due to the premises, 
even where the final process of inference is purely intel- 
lectual. 

We can select illustrations of this view of the sub- 
tlety of the operation of prejudice from instances of a 
kind unlike the one previously named ; in which it will 
be seen that the disinclination of the inquirer to accept 
Christianity has not arisen primarily from the obstacle 
caused by the enmity of his own carnal heart, but from 
antipathy toward the moral character of those who have 
professed the Christian faith. 

Who can doubt, that the corrupt lives of Christians 
in the later centuries of the middle ages, the avarice of 
the Avignon popes, the selfishness shown in the great 
schism, the simony and nepotism of the Roman court 
of the fifteenth century, excited disgust and hatred tow- 
ard Christianity in the hearts of the literary men of the 
Renaissance, which disqualified them for the reception 
of the Christian evidences ; or that the social disaffec- 
tion in the last century in France incensed the mind 
against the Church that supported alleged public 
abuses, 13 until it blinded a Voltaire from seeing any 
goodness in Christianity ; or that the religious intoler- 
ance shown within the present century by the ecclesias- 

plained by the antecedent probability that existed for the occurrence of the 
main fact which the accumulation of circumstances is adduced to attest. 

13 See below, the commencement of Lect. V. ; and on the influence of 
social disaffection in causing modern unbelief, see Pearson's Infidelity^ 
part 2. ch. 3. p. SIS seq. 



16 LECTUEE I. 

tical power in Italy drove a Leopardi 14 and a Bini 15 into 
doubt ; or that the sense of supposed personal wrong 
and social isolation deepened the unbelief of Shelley 16 
and of Heinrich Heine ? :7 Whatever other motives 
'may have operated in these respective cases, the preju- 
dices which arose from the causes just named, doubtless 
created an antecedent impression against religion, which 
impeded the lending an unbiassed ear to its evidence. 

The subtlety of the influence in these instances 
makes them the more instructive. If, as we contem- 
plate them, our sympathies are so far enlisted on the 
side of the doubters that it becomes necessary to check 
ourselves in exculpating them, by the consideration that 
they were responsible for failing to separate the essen- 
tial truth of Christianity from the accidental abuse of 

34 Giacomo Leopardi (1*798 — 1837), a native of the trans- Apennine 
Roman states. His works were published (1845 — 49), consisting of philo- 
logical pieces, poems, papers on philosophy, and letters. The Italians con- 
sider him to have been a prodigy in philological power that might have 
rivalled Niebuhr. As a poet he was one of the finest of his country in the 
present century. His letters are very classical in expression, and have 
been said to rival the correspondence of the best ages of Italy. His fine 
M<£.$j&S&*4£^ vaL & was darkened with the deepest shades of doubt. Shelley is the 
» "g* nearest English representative. A masterly sketch of his mental and 

\4, £/£*.< i n-j^r nt erar y character was given in the Quarterly Review (No. 172. March 
C.?fr+g ^tAt*" 1 850 )» generally supposed to be from the pen of an English statesman well 
,jf _ . . known for his knowledge of the Italian literature and his sympathy with 
T^U*. 4*«^'/2^constitutional government. 

/ 15 Carlo Bini (180G— 1842), a native of Tuscany of less note, who 
belonged to the Republican party in politics, and like Leopardi burned 
with an unquenchable love of la patria. A monument with an inscription 
by his friend Mazzini has been recently erected over his grave at Livorno. 
The tender pathos shown in his poetry has been compared to that of Jean 
Paul. One of his poems, I? Anniversario della Nascita 1833, expressive 
of deep and afflicting scepticism and life-weariness, will be found in the 
Collection of Italian Poetry edited by Arrivabene (1 vol. 12mo. 1855.) 
1G Shelley's mental character is discussed near the close of Lect. V. 
37 Heinrich Heine (1799 — 185G), a poet who betook himself to Paris, 
about 1830, in disgust with the political state of Germany. His poetry 
was chiefly subsequent to this event. He had a mixture of German im- 
agination with French esprit. In tone he has been compared to Byron. 
Vapereau (Diction, des Contemp.) compares his wit to that of Swift or 
Rabelais. His collected works have been published at Philadelphia ; and 
his poems were translated into English by E. A. Bowring, 1861. In later 
life Heine laid aside the extreme unbelief of his earlier years. An article 
respecting him appeared in the Westminster Review (Jan. 1856.) 



LECTURE I. 17 

it shown in the lives of its professors, we can imagine 
so much the more clearly, how great was the danger to 
these doubters themselves of omitting the introspection 
of their own characters necessary for detecting the preju- 
dice which actually seemed to have conscience on its 
side ; and can realize more vividly from these instances 
the secresy and intense subtlety of the influence of the 
feelings in the formation of doubt, and infer the neces- 
sity of most careful attention for its discovery in others, 
and watchfulness in detecting it in our own hearts. 

There are other cases of doubt, however, where the 
influence of the emotional element, if it operates at all, 
is reduced to a minimum, and the cause accordingly 
seems wholly intellectual. This may happen when the 
previous convictions of the mind are shaken by the 
knowledge of some fact newly brought before its notice ; 
such as the apparent conflict between the Hebrew 
record of a universal deluge 18 and the negative evidence 
of geology as to its non-occurrence ; or the historical 
discrepancies between the books of Kings and Chroni- 
cles, 19 or the varying accounts of the genealogy and res- 
urrection of Christ. A doubt purely intellectual in its 
origin might also arise, as we know was the case with 
the pious Bengel, 20 in consequence of perceiving the va- 

18 A brief statement of the difficulties raised on this point is given by 
Professor Baden Powell in the article Deluge in Kitto's Cyclopaedia (first 
edition). 

ia These discrepancies formed part of the subject of an early work of 
De Wette (ueber die glaubwuerdigkeit der buecher der Chronik 1806), and 
are noticed in his Einleitung ins Alt. Test. (See the chapters which refer 
to these books) ; also in Dr. S. Davidson's Introduction to the Old Testa- 
ment 1862, vol. ii. Chronicles § 6 and 8. Mr. F. Newman, in his work, 
The Hebrew Monarchy, has made great use of these difficulties for destruc- 
tive criticism. Movers {Untersuchungen ueber die Chronik 1834), and C. 
F. Keil (Apologetischer Versuch ueber die Chronik 1833), endeavour to 
remove them. Also see the translation of the Commentary of Keil and 
Bertheau on Kings and Chronicles, the former of the two being based on 
the work of the same author previously named. 

20 J. A. Bengel (1689— 1 752), author of the Gnomon of the Kew 
Testament (translated, with Life prefixed to vol. iv.) Cfr. also the article 
by Hartmann in Herzog's Real. Encyclopcedie and Burt's Life of him 
(translated 1837.) The labour of his life, to fix the text of the New Tes- 
tament, was prompted by the alarm which his pious mind felt at the uncer- 
tainty thrown on the sacred books, the inspiration of which he believed to 
extend to the words. 



18 LECTURE I. 

riety of readings in the sacred text ; or, as in many of 
the German critics, from the difficulty created by the 
long habit of examining the classical legends and myths, 
in satisfying themselves about the reasons why similar 
criticism should not be extended to the early national 
literature of the Hebrews. Causes of doubt like these, 
which spring from the advance of knowledge, necessa- 
rily belong primarily to the intellectual region. The 
intellect is the cause and not merely the condition of 
them. But there is room even here for an emotional 
element ; and the state of heart may be tested by no- 
ticing whether the mind gladly and proudly grasps at 
them or thoughtfully weighs them with serious effort to 
discover the truth. The moral causes may reinforce or 
may check the intellectual : but the distinctness of the 
two classes is apparent. Though co-existing and inter- 
locked, they may be made subjects of independent 
study. 

The preceding analysis, of the relations of the moral 
and intellectual faculties in the formation of religious 
opinions might enable us to criticise the ethical infer- 
ences drawn in reference to man's responsibility for his 
belief. Those who think that our characters, moral 
and intellectual, are formed for us by circumstances, 
are consistent in denying or depreciating responsibility. 21 
There is a danger however among Christian writers of 
falling into the opposite error, of dwelling so entirely 
on the moral causes, in forgetfulness of the intellectual, 
as to teach not only that unbelief of the Christian re- 
ligion is sin, (which few would dispute,) but that even 

21 The denial of responsibility for belief may either be a denial of all 
responsibility whatever, in consequence of the opinion that our characters 
are formed for us by circumstances, or else a denial of our responsibility 
for our belief, as distinct from our responsibility for the agreement of our 
conduct with our belief; the moral responsibility, according to this view, 
lying in our adherence to a standard, irrespective of the truthfulness of 
the standard. The former of these views is the fatalism advocated in the 
system called (English) Socialism (See Morell's History of Philosophy, 
i. 472 seq.) ; the latter has occasionally been imputed to teachers of the 
utilitarian school of Ethics, perhaps with less justice ; their assertions in 
reference to it being intended to apply only to political and not to moral 
responsibility. 



LECTURE I. 19 

transient doubt of it is sinful ; and thus to repel unbe- 
lievers by imputing to them motives of which their con- 
sciences acquit them. 

A truth however is contained in this opinion, though 
obscured by being stated with exaggeration, inasmuch 
as the fact is overlooked that doubts may be of many 
different kinds. Sinfulness cannot, for example, be im- 
puted to the mere scepticism of inquiry, the healthy 
critical investigation of methods or results ; nor to the 
scepticism of despair, which, hopeless of finding truth, 
takes up a reactionary and mystical attitude ; 2a nor to 
the cases (if such can ever be,) of painful doubt, perhaps 
occasionally even of partial unbelief, which are pro- 
duced exclusively by intellectual causes, without admix- 
ture of moral ones. This variety of form should create 
caution in measuring the degree of sinfulness involved 
in individual cases of doubt. Yet the inclination to 
condemn in such instances contains the fundamental 
truth that the moral causes are generally so intertwined 
with the intellectual in the assumption of data, if not in 
the process of inference, that there is a ground, for fear- 
ing that the fault may be one of will, not of intellect, 
even though undetected by the sceptic himself. And a 
conscientious mind will learn the practical lesson of 
exercising the most careful self-examination in refer- 
ence to its doubts, and especially will use the utmost 
caution not to communicate them needlessly to others. 
The Hebrew Psalmist, instead of telling his painful 
misgivings, harboured them in God's presence until he 
found the solution. 23 The delicacy exhibited in forbear- 
ing unnecessarily to shake the faith of others is a meas- 
ure of the disinterestedness of the doubter. " If I say, 
I will speak thus ; behold I should offend against the 
generation of thy children." 

aa Such an attitude of mind, for example, was presented in the seven- 
teenth century by Huet, and in the present by De Maistre. On the 
former, see Bartholmess' Le Scepticisme Theologique (1852); for reference 
to sources for the study of the latter, see Lect. VII. Consult MorelPs 
History of Philosophy (vol. ii. ch. 6. § 2) for the history of this kind of 
philosophical scepticism. 

33 Psalm Ixxiii. 15 — 17. 



■2 



20 LECTURE I. 

These remarks will enable us to estimate the man- 
ner and degree in which the emotions may, consciously 
or unconsciously, influence the operations of the intel- 
lect in reference to religion ; and will clear the way for 
the statement of that which is to form the special sub- 
ject of study in these lectures, the nature and mode of 
operation of the intellectual causes, and the forms of free 
thought in religion to which they may give rise. This 
branch is frequently neglected, because satisfying the 
intellect rather than the heart, indicating tendencies 
rather than affording means to pronounce judgment on 
individuals ; yet it admits of greater certainty, and will 
perhaps in some respects be found to be not less full of 
instruction, than the other. 

We must distinctly apprehend what is here intended 
by the term " intellectual cause," when applied to a 
series of phenomena like sceptical opinions. It does 
not merely denote the antecedent ideas which form 
previous links in the same chain of thought : these are 
sufficiently revealed by the chronicle which records the 
series. JSTor does it mean the uniformity of method 
according to winch the mind is observed to act at suc- 
cessive intervals : this is the law or formula, the exist- 
ence of which has been already indicated.' 24 But we 
intend by " cause " two things ; either the sources of 
knowledge which have from age to age thrown their 
materials into the stream of thought, and compelled 
reason to re-investigate religion and try to harmonize 
the new knowledge with the old beliefs ; or else the 
ultimate intellectual grounds or tests of truth on which 
the decision in such cases has been based, the most gen- 
eral types of thought into which the forms of doubt 
can be analysed. The problem is this : — Given, these 
two terms : on the one hand the series of opinions 
known as the history of free thought in religion ; on 
the other the uniformity of mode in which reason has 
operated. Interpolate two steps to connect them to- 
gether, which will show respectively the materials of 

21 See pp. 7, 12. 



LECTURE I. 21 

knowledge which reason at successive moments Drought 
to bear on religion, and the ultimate standards of truth 
which it adopted in applying this material to it. It is 
the attempt to supply the answer to this problem that 
will give organic unity to these lectures. 

A few words will suffice in reference to the former 
of these two subjects, inasmuch as it has already been 
described to some extent," and will be made clear in 
the course of the history. The branches of knowledge 
with which the movements of free thought in religion 
are connected, are chiefly literary criticism and science. 
The one addresses itself to the record of the revelation ; 
the other to the matter contained in the record. Criti- 
cism, when it gains canons of evidence for examining 
secular literature, applies them to the sacred books ; 
directing itself in its lower 26 form to the variations in 
their text ; in its higher 20 to their genuineness and au- 
thenticity. Science, physical or metaphysical, addresses 
itself to the question of the credibility of their contents. 
In its physical form, when it has reduced the world to 
its true position in the universe of space, human history 
in the cycles of time, and the human race in the world 
of organic life, it compares these discoveries with the 
view of the universe and of the physical history of the 
planet contained in the sacred literature ; or it exam- 
ines the Christian doctrine of miraculous interposition 
and special providence by the light of its gradually 
increasing conviction of the uniformity of nature. In 
its moral and metaphysical forms, science, examines 
such subjects as the moral history of the Hebrew theoc- 
racy ; or ponders reverently over the mystery of the 
divine scheme of redemption, and the teaching which 
scripture supplies on the deepest problems of specula- 
tion, the relations of Deity to the universe, the act of 
creation, the nature of evil, and the administration of 
moral providence. 

25 See pp. 8-12. 

26 These names for the two respective branches into which literary 
criticism is divisible, are commonly used in all modern German works of 
criticism. 



22 LECTURE I. 

There is another mode, however, in which specula- 
tive philosophy has operated, which needs fuller expla- 
nation. It has not merely, like the other sciences, sug- 
gested results which have seemed to clash with Chris- 
tianity, but has supplied the ultimate grounds of proof 
to which appeal has consciously been made, or which 
have been unconsciously assumed : — the ultimate types 
of thought which have manifested themselves in the 
struggle." 

It will be useful, before exhibiting this kind of in- 
fluence in reference to religion, to illustrate its charac- 
ter by selecting an instance from some region of thought 
where its effects would be least suspected. The exam- 
ple shall be taken from the history of literature. 

If we compare three poets selected from the last 
three centuries, the contrast will exhibit at once the 
change which has taken place in the literary spirit and 
standard of judgment, and the correspondence of the 
change with fluctuations in the predominant philosophy 
of the time. — If we commence with the author of the 
Paradise Lost, we listen to the last echo of the poetry 
which had belonged to the great outburst of mind of 
the earlier part of the seventeenth century, and of the 
faith in the supernatural which had characterized Puri- 
tanism. His philosophy is Hebrew : he hesitates not 
to interpret the divine counsels ; but it is by the sup- 
posed light of revelation. Doubt is unknown to him. 
The anthropomorphic conception of Deity prevails. 
Material nature is the instrument of God's personal 
providence for the objects of His care. — But if we pass 
to the author of the Essay on Man, the revolution which 
has given artistic precision to the form is not more ob- 

27 The work which will most clearly explain my purpose in the follow- 
ing history is Mr. J. D. Morell's Historical and Critical View of the Specu- 
lative Philosophy of Europe in the nineteenth century. (1847.) It 
exhibits the influence of metaphysical philosophy on various branches of 
knowledge. (See sect. 1 and 5 of the introduction to vol. i., and in vol. 
ii. ch. 9.) Also in his Lectures on the Philosophical Tendencies of the 
Age (1848), he treats the same subject with direct reference to religion. 
Compare also on the same points Cousin's Histoire de la Philosophic du 8 e 
siecle, vol. ii. lecon 30 ; Pearson on Infidelity, part ii. ch. 2. p. 340 seq. 



LECTURE I. 23 

servable than the indications of a philosophy which has 
chilled the spiritual faculties. The supernatural is 
gone. Nature is a vast machine which moves by fixed 
laws impressed upon it by a Creator. The soul feels 
chilled with the desolation of a universe wherein it 
cannot reach forth by prayer to a loving Father. 
Scripture is displaced by science. Doubt has passed 
into unbelief. The universe is viewed by the cold ma- 
terialism which arraigns spiritual subjects at the bar of 
sense. — If now we turn to the work consecrated by the 
great living poet to the memory of his early friend, we 
find ourselves in contact with a meditative soul, sepa- 
rated from the age just named by a complete intel- 
lectual chasm ; whose spiritual perceptions reflect a 
philosophy which expresses the sorrows and doubts of a 
cultivated mind of the present day, " perplext in faith 
but not in deeds.* 8 " The material has become trans- 
figured into the spiritual. The objective has been re- 
placed by the subjective. Nature is studied, as in 
Pope, without the assumption of a revelation ; but it is 
no longer regarded as a machine conducted by material ^ . 
laws : it is a motive soul which embodies God's pres- A 
ence ; a mystery to be felt, not understood. God is not 
afar off, so that we cannot reach Him : He is so nigh, 
that His omnipresence seems to obscure His personality. 

These instances will illustrate the difference which 
philosophy produces in the classes of ideas in which the 
mind of an age is formed. In Milton, the appeal is 
made to the revelation of God in the Book ; in Pope, 
to the revelation in Nature ; in the living poet, to the 
revelation in man's soul, the type of the infinite Spirit 
and interpreter of God's universe and God's book. 29 

It is an analysis of a similar kind which we must 
conduct in reference to sceptical opinions. The influ- 
ence of the first of the two classes of intellectual causes 
above named, 30 viz. the various forms of knowledge 

28 Tennyson's In Memoriam, § 94. 

29 An instructive comparison of Milton, Cowper, and Wordsworth, which 
will further illustrate this subject, may be found in MacmillarC s Magazine 
for Jan. 1862. 30 See p. 21. 



24 LECTURE I. 

there described, could not exist unobserved, for they are 
present from time to time as rival doctrines in contest 
with Christianity ; but the kind of influence of which 
we now treat, which relates to the grounds of belief on 
which a judgment is consciously or unconsciously 
formed, is more subtle, and requires analysis for its de- 
tection. 

We must briefly explain its nature, and illustrate its 
influence on religion. 

Metaphysical science is usually divided into two 
branches ; of which one examines the objects known, 
the other the human mind, that is the organ of knowl- 
edge. (7) When Psychology has finished its study of 
the structure and functions of the mind, it supplies the 
means for drawing inferences in reply to a question 
which admits of a twofold aspect, viz. which of the 
mental faculties, — sense, reason, feeling, furnishes the 
origin of knowledge ; and which is the supreme test of 
truth ? These two questions form the subjective or 
Psychological branch of Metaphysics. According to the 
answer thus obtained we deduce a corollary in reference 
to the objective side. We ask what information is 
afforded by these mental faculties in respect to the na- 
ture or attributes of the objects known, — matter, mind, 
God, duty. The answer to this question is the branch 
commonly called the Ontological. The one inquiry 
treats of the tests of knowledge, the other of the nature 
of being. The combination of the two furnishes the 
answer on its two sides, internally and externally, to 
the question, "What is truth ? 

The right application of them to the subject of re- 
ligion would give a philosophy of religion ; either ob- 
jectively by the process of constructing a theodicee or 
theory to reconcile reason and faith ; or subjectively, 
by separating their provinces by means of such an in- 
quiry into the functions of the religious faculty, and the 
nature of the truths apprehended by it, as might furnish 
criteria to determine the amount that is to be appro- 
priated respectively from our own consciousness and 
from external authority. 



LECTURE I. 25 

The influence of the Ontological branch of the in- 
quiry in producing a struggle with Christianity, has 
been already included under the difficulties previously 
named, which are created by the growth of the various 
sciences. 31 It is the influence of the Psychological 
branch that we are now illustrating, by showing that 
the various theories in respect of it give their type to 
various forms of belief and doubt. 

The well-known threefold distribution of the facul- 
ties that form the ultimate grounds of conviction will 
suffice for our purpose : viz., sensational consciousness 
revealing to us the world of matter ; intuitive reason 
that of mind ; and feeling that of emotion. 32 These 
are the forms of consciousness which supply the mate- 
rial from which the reflective powers draw inferences 
and construct systems. 

It is easy to exhibit the mental character which each 
would have a tendency to generate when applied to a 
special subject like religion, natural or revealed. 

If the eye of sense be the sole guide in looking 
around on nature, we discover only a universe of brute 
matter, phenomena linked together in uniform succes- 
sion of antecedents and consequents. Mind becomes 
only a higher form of matter. Sin loses its poignancy. 
Immortality disappears.. G-od exists not, except as a 
personification of the Cosmos. Materialism, atheism, 

31 The cause is, that whatever difficulties may be presented by it are 
the statements of rival teaching opposed to the Christian ; conclusions, not 
premises : whereas those which arise from the psychological branch are 
rival premises ; not difference of belief merely, but causes of such dif- 
ference. Therefore the difficulties suggested by Ontology belong to those 
described above in p. 21, 22. Many illustrations of this branch may be 
found in Bartholmess' Hist. Crit. des Doctrines Religieuses de la Philo- 
sophie Moderne, 1855. 

32 The classification of faculties here intended, with their respective 
functions, will be illustrated by referring to Morell's Hist, of Phil., vol. 
ii. p. 33S ; and his Philosophy of Religion, ch. 1. and 2. The altered 
scheme given in his subsequent works on Psychology (1853 and 1861,) 
ought also to be compared with the former one. See also Coleridge's 
Aids to Refection, i. 168 seq. The terms Sensationalist, Idealist, and 
Mystic, are nearly always used in the present lectures in the sense in which 
Morell, following Cousin, uses them ; viz. to express those who place the 
ultimate test of truth in sense, innate ideas, or feeling, respectively, 



26 LECTURE I. 

fatalism, are the ultimate results wliicli are proved "by 
logic and history 33 to follow from this extreme view. 
The idea of spirit cannot be reached by it. For if some 
other form of experience than the sensitive be regarded 
as the origin of knowledge ; if a nobler view be forced 
on ns by the very inability even to express nature's 
phenomena without superadding spiritual qualities ; if 
regularity of succession 34 suggest the idea of order and 
purpose and mind ; if adaptation suggest the idea of 
morality ; if movement suggest the idea of form and 
will ; if will suggest the idea of personality ; if the idea 
of the Cosmos suggest unity, and thus we mount up, 
step by step, to the conception of a God, possessing 
unity, intelligence, will, character, we really transfer 
into the sphere of nature ideas taken from another re- 
gion of being, viz., from our consciousness of ourselves, 
our consciousness of spirit. It is mental association 
that links these ideas to those of sense, and gives to a 
sensational philosophy properties not its own. If how- 
ever sensational experience can by any means arrive at 
the notion of natural religion ; yet it will find a diffi- 
culty, created by its belief of the uniformity of nature, 

33 E. g. in the history of the eighteenth century in France. (See Lcct. 
V.) In estimating the effects of philosophical opinions, care must be used, 
to distinguish the results which may be thought by opponents to flow from 
such opinions by logical inference, from those which have been proved by 
history to flow from them in fact. Some portion of Cousin's brilliant criti- 
cism, in the Hist, de la Phil. Francaise du 18 e siecle, and in the Ecole 
Sensimliste, is thought to be open to exception on this ground. It is from a 
conviction of the importance of not attributing to a philosopher that which 
we merely conceive to be a corollary, though a logical one, from his 
opinions, that the writer has abstained from introducing here into the text 
examples of the different views sketched, and has treated the subject in this 
page broadly and without minuteness. The religious results here stated to 
appertain to particular metaphysical opinions must accordingly be regarded 
as logical tendencies, not as necessary effects. The truth of opinions must 
not be tested merely by supposed consequences, though the practical value 
of such a test ought to be allowed its due weight. 

34 A statement of the steps of proof similar to those described here, by 
which we ascend to the knowledge of a Deity, is to be found in the 
Sermons of the late lamented Rev. Shergold Boone (Sermons 2-7 ; and 
especially 2 and 3; 1853). Compare also the steps of proof which 
Rousseau gives in the Confession of the Savoyard Vicar of the Emih, 
analysed in Lect. V. 



LECTURE I. 27 

in taking the further step of admitting the miraculous 
interference which gives birth to revealed : and even if 
this difficulty should be surmounted, the disinclination 
to the supernatural would nevertheless have a tendency 
to obliterate mystery by empirical rationalism, and to 
reduce piety to morality, morality to expedience, 35 the 
church to a political institution, religion to a ritual sys- 
tem, and its evidence to external historic testimony. 

The rival system of proof founded in intuitive con- 
sciousness is however not free from danger. A differ- 
ence occurs, according as this endowment is regarded as 
merely revealing the facts of our own inner experience, 
or on the other hand as possessing a power to apprehend 
God positively, and spirit to spirit. 30 The result of the 
former belief would be indeed an ethical religion, com- 
pared with the political one just described. If it did 
not rise from the law to the law-giver, it would at least 
present morality as a law obligatory on man by his 
mental structure, independently of the consideration of 
reward and punishment. The ideas of God, duty, 
immortality, would be established as a necessity of 
thought, if not as matters of objective fact. Yet reli- 
gion would be rather rational than supernatural ; obe- 
dience to duty instead of communion with Deity; and 
unless the mind can find ground for a belief in God and 
the divine attributes through some other faculty, the 
idealism must destroy the evidence of revealed religion. 
Or at least, if the mind admit its truth, it must re- 
nounce the right to criticise the material of that which 
it confesses to be beyond the limits of its own conscious- 

85 These charges are frequently made indiscriminately against all who 
hold that expedience is a sufficient explanation of the origin of moral 
ideas. They were true in a great degree against Utilitarians of the laet 
century, together with some of those in the early years of the present. 
But when applied at the present time, they only indicate a tendency, not 
a fact ; as may be seen in the delicate manner in which Mr. J. S. Mill has 
explained the doctrine of Utility, in a series of papers in Fraser's Maga- 
zine for 1861. 

36 The first of these two views is seen in Kant, with whom the forms 
of thought are only regulatively true ; the second in Schelling and Cousin. 
The references for studying Kant's religious views will be found in a note 
to Lecture VI. 



28 LECTURE I. 

ness ; and thus, by abdicating its natural powers, blindly 
submit to external authority, and accept belief as the 
refuge from its own Pyrrhonism. 

If, on the other hand, instead of regarding all at- 
tempts to pass beyond logical forms of thought to be 
mental impotence, the mind follows its own instincts, 
and, relying upon the same natural realism which justi- 
fies its belief in the immediate character of its sensitive 
perceptions, ventures to depend with equal firmness on 
the reality of its intuitional consciousness, religion, 
natural or revealed, wears another aspect ; and both the 
advantages and the dangers of such a view are widely dif- 
ferent. 37 The soul no longer regards the landscape to be 
a scene painted on the windows of its prison-house, a 
subjective limit to its perceptions, but not specula- 
tively true ; but it wanders forth from its cell unfettered 
into the universe around. God is no longer an infer- 
ence from final causes, nor a principle of thought. He 
is the living God, a real personal spirit with whom the 
soul is permitted to hold direct communion. Provi- 
dence becomes the act of a personal agent. Religion is 
the worship in spirit. Sin is seen in its heinousness. 
Prayer is justified as a reality, as the breathing of the 
human soul for communion with its infinite Parent (8). 
And by the light of this intuition, God, nature, and 
man, look changed. Nature is no longer a physical 
engine ; man no longer a moral machine. Material 
nature becomes the regular expression of a personal 
fixed will ; Miracle the direct interposition of a personal 
free will. Revelation is probable, as the voice of God's 
mercy to the child of His love. Inspiration becomes 

37 The dangers of such a view arise from those results which have been 
pointed out in Sir W. Hamilton's Dissertations (Diss. I. on Cousin). In 
reference to the office of the intuition in science, Dr. Whewell's view, in 
the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, may be adduced as one which 
appears to possess the advantage designed by Schelling's theory, and not be 
open to those criticisms which have been directed against it. Possibly a 
true philosophy of the action of the intellectual faculties in reference to 
religion might be obtained by transferring to it the analysis which Dr. 
Whewell has given of .their action in reference to science. Dr. McCosh, 
in his work on the Inlmtions of the Mind (1859), has done much towards 
effecting it. 



LECTUKE I. 29 

possible, for the intuitional consciousness seems adapted 
to be used by divine Providence as its instrument. 3 " 

But the type of mind created by the use of intuition 
as a test of truth is rarely alone. It is cognate to, if it 
is not connected with, that produced by the third of 
the above-named tests, feeling. The emotions, accord- 
ing to a law of spiritual supply and demand, suggest 
the reality of the objects toward which they are aspira- 
tions. The longing for help, the feeling of dependence, 
is the justification of prayer ; the sense of remorse is 
the witness to divine judgment ; the consciousness of 
penitence is the ground for hope in God's merciful in- 
terference ; the ineradicable sense of guilt is the eternal 
witness to the need of atonement ; the instinct for im- 
mortality is the pledge of a future life. 

Yet the use of these tests of intuition and feeling in 
religion, though possessing these advantages, has dan- 
gers. If the feelings, instead of being used to reinforce 
or check the other faculties, be relied upon as sole 
arbiters ; especially if they be linked with the imagina- 
tion instead of the intuition ; they may conduct to mys- 
ticism and superstition by the very vividness of their 
perception of the supernatural. 39 Likewise the intuitive 

38 In Morell's Philosophy of Religion (c. 5 and 6,) are remarks on theX' 
relation of intuition to inspiration, to which attention may be directed, but 
only in a psychological point of view. Pious minds that believe in mirac- 
ulous inspiration will rightly hesitate before holding any particular psycho- 
logical theory of the field of its operation ; yet it would seem, if we may 
hazard a conjecture, that it is the intuitive power of the mind which is 
mostly the organ to which the divine revelation is unveiled, and on which 
the inspiring influence acts. It is certain that we cannot understand the 
modus operandi, but we may without irreverence humbly seek to discover 
the field on which God's Spirit condescends to operate. In this view in- 
spiration would be analogous to natural genius psychologically, but wholly 
different theologically, inasmuch as all who believe in its miraculous char- 
acter must hold firmly that it is due to a supernatural elevation of this 
mental power by immediate operation of divine agency, whereas the dis- 
coveries of ordinary genius are due to the unassisted and normal condition 

of the faculty. Morell, in the passage referred to, will probably be 
thought to be right in the psychological question, and wrong in the theo- 
logical. 

39 The mysticism of the Quakers of the seventeenth century, and of 
Swedenborg in the eighteenth, is of this character. The excessive self- 
mortification of the Franciscan order in the middle arrcs mav be set down 



30 LECTURE I. 

faculty, if it be regarded as giving a noble grasp over 
the fact of God as an infinite Spirit, may cause the 
mind to relax its hold on the idea of the Divine Person- 
ality, and fall into Pantheism, and identify God with 
the universe, not by degrading spirit to matter, but by 
elevating matter to spirit. 40 Or, instead of allowing 
experience and revelation to develop into conceptions 
of the fundamental truth whose existence it perceives, it 
may attempt to develop a religion wholly a priori, 41 and 
assert its right to create as well as to verify. Also, 
when applying itself to revealed religion, this type of 
thought necessarily makes its last appeal to inward in- 
sight. It cannot, like sensationalism, or subjective 
idealism, admit its own impotence, and receive on au- 
thority a revelation, the contents of which it ventures 
not to criticise. It must always appropriate that which 
it is to believe. Accordingly it will have a tendency to 
render religion subjective in its character, uncertain in 
its doctrines, individual in its constitution. 

These general remarks, every one of which admits 
of historic exemplification, 42 will suffice to illustrate the 
kind of influence exercised by these respective tests of 
truth in forming the judgment or moulding the charac- 
ter in relation to the belief or disbelief of natural and 
revealed religion. These effects are not adduced as the 

to the influence, perhaps not consciously analysed, of the same standard 
used for guidance. On Mysticism, see Morell's History of Philosophy y 
ii. 332 seq. and 356 seq. ; and his Lectures on the Philosophical Tendencies 
of the Age (Lect. III.); on Swedenborg, see National Review No. 12 ; and 
on mystics generally, consult the interesting work of the lamented Rev. R. 
A. Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, 1856. 

40 As in Spinoza, or the school of Schelling. 

41 As in Herbert in the seventeenth century, and Theodore Parker in 
the nineteenth. On the intuitional theology, see McCosh, Divine Govern- 
ment, b. iv. ch. 2. § 4. (note.) 

42 The above are only a very few instances, of which many will occur 
hereafter ; but they will sufficiently indicate that the French infidelity is 
mostly connected with the appeal to the first test of truth, sensation ; 
German rationalism, the result of an appeal to an intuitive faculty " trans- 
cending consciousness ; " English deism, and the earlier forms of German 
rationalism, the appeal to the ordinary reason, as able to create religion 
for itself. The separate appeal to feeling has generally, it will be per- 
ceived, caused too much belief, instead of too little ; mysticism instead of 
scepticism. 



LECTURE I. 31 

necessary results but as the ordinary tendencies of these 
respective theories. The mind frequently stops short 
of the conclusions logically deducible from its own prin- 
ciples. To measure precisely the effect of each view 
would be impossible. In mental science analysis must 
be qualitative, not quantitative. 

It will hardly be expected that we should arbitrate 
among these theories, inasmuch as our purpose is not to 
test the comparative truthfulness of metaphysical opin- 
ions, but to refer sceptical opinions in religion to their 
true scientific and metaphysical parentage. Truth is 
probably to be found in a selection from all ; and histor- 
ical investigation is the chief means of discovering the 
mode of conducting the process. It is at least certain, 
that if history be the form which science necessarily 
takes in the study of that which is subject to laws of 
life and organic growth, it must be the preliminary in- 
quiry in any investigation in reference to mental phe- 
nomena. The history of philosophy must be the ap- 
proach to philosophy. 43 The great problem of philoso- 
phy is method ; and if there be a hope that the true 
method can ever be found it must be by uniting the 
historical analysis of the development of the universal 
mind with the psychological analysis of the individual. 
The history of thought indicates not only fact but truth ; 
not only shows what has been, but, by exhibiting the 
proportions which different faculties contribute toward 
the construction of truth, and indicating tendencies as 
well as results, prepares materials to be collated with 
the decision previously made by mental and moral 
science concerning the question of what ought to be (9). 

43 This was the view presented in the teaching of Cousin and the Eclec- 
tic school of France. Many of the younger thinkers of Europe now con- 
sider that the history of philosophy constitutes the whole of philosophy, and 
is not merely, as here maintained, the preliminary to it. This new view 
is probably unconsciously derived from Hegel, and is the residuum left b^ 
his philosophy. Two able living French critics, Renan and Scherer, have 
so very clearly expressed this view of the function of philosophy, that it 
may be well to quote their words (see Note 9) ; the more so, as this subject 
will be named again in Lect. VII. Renan has also expressed the same 
ideas in the Revue des deux Mondes'(Jan. 15, 18G0), De la Metaphysique 
et de son <wenir. 



32 LECTURE I. 

A definite conviction on this metaphysical inquiry 
seems perhaps to be involved in the very idea of criti- 
cism, and necessary for drawing the moral from the his- 
tory ; yet the independence of our historical inquiry 
ought to be sacrificed as little as possible to illustrate a 
foregone conclusion. It will be more satisfactory to 
present the evidence for a verdict without undue advo- 
cacy of a side in the metaphysical controversy. 44 

The execution of this design of analysing the intel- 
lectual causes of unbelief will necessarily involve to 
some extent a biographical treatment of the subject, 
both for theoretical and practical reasons, to discover 
truth and to derive instruction. This is so evident in 
the history of action, that there is a danger at the pres- 
ent time lest history should lose the general in the indi- 
vidual, and descend from the rank of science to mere 
biography. 45 The deeper insight which is gradually 
obtained into the complexity of nature, together with 
the fuller conviction of human freedom, is causing 
artistic portraiture and ethical analysis to be substituted 
for historical generalization. The same method how- 
ever applies to the region of thought as well as will. 



44 It is not from any wish to evade the real question that the writer 
thus avoids taking a side in the metaphysical dispute. His object is to ex- 
plain the various effects of metaphysical theories on religious belief; and 
while considering that the respective evil effects of these systems are a 
logical corollary from them, as well as an historical result, he is prepared 
to admit, as previously remarked, that men are sometimes better than their 
systems, and do not always draw the logical conclusions from their own 
premises ; and therefore he has not thought it right to make these lectures 
a direct argument on behalf of some favourite metaphysical system, and 
attack on some rival one. In such case, the history would lose its indepen- 
dent character. While therefore he has never concealed his opinions on 
the subject of religion, he has thought it more proper not to obtrude, ex- 
cept indirectly, his opinions on that of metaphysics. 

45 This is the question at issue between modern Positivists and their 
opponents. Comte declared the possibility of discovering the fixed laws 
on which society depends as really as the physical ones of matter. Mr. 
Mill, in his account of the logic of history (Logic, b. vi. c. 4. (6-10) ), lays 
down more maturely the theory of such a process. On the contrary, Mr. 
Kingsley, in his inaugural lecture at Cambridge, ISOl, asserts the very 
opposite position ; and, in his wish to elevate the influence of individual 
men on the course of events, almost reduces history to a series of biog- 
raphies. 



LECTURE I. 33 

Thought, as an intellectual product, can indeed be 
studied apart from the mind that creates it, and can be 
treated by history as a material fact subject to the fixed 
succession of natural laws. But the exclusive use of such 
a method, at least in any other subject of study than 
that of the results of physical discovery, must be defect- 
ive, even independently of the question of the action of 
free will, unless the thoughts which are the object of 
study be also connected with the personality of the 
thinker who produces them. His external biography is 
generally unimportant, save when the individual char- 
acter may have impressed itself upon public events ; 
but the internal portraiture, the growth of soul as 
known by psychological analysis, is the very instru- 
ment for understanding the expression of it in life or in 
literature. 46 It is requisite to know che mental bias of 
a writer, whether it be practical, imaginative or reflec- 
tive ; to see the idola sjpecns which influenced him, the 
action of circumstances upon his character, and the re- 
action of his character upon circumstances ; before we 
can gain the clue to the interpretation of his works. 
But if we wish further to derive moral instruction from 
him, the biographical mode of study becomes even more 
necessary. For the notion of freedom as the ground of 
responsibility is now superadded ; and the story of his 
life is the sole means for such an apprehension of the 
causes of his heart-struggles as shall enable us to take 
the gauge of his moral character, and appropriate the 
lessons derivable from the study of it. 

Indeed biographical notices, if they could be ex- 
tended compatibly with the compass of the subject, 
would be the most instructive and vivid mode of pre- 
senting alike the facts relating to scepticism and their 
interpretation. Such memoirs are not wanting, and 

46 The kind of analysis here alluded to may be illustrated by referring 
to one of the Essays of Mr. D. Masson, in which he has compared in a very 
striking manner Shakspeare and Goethe, by regarding their respective 
works as reflecting the mental peculiarity of each writer. He considers the 
meditative melancholy of Shakspeare's youth, as expressed in his Sonnets, 
to be the clue to the reflective analysis that in later life could depict the 
doubts of Hamlet. 

9* 



34: LECTURE I. 

are among tlie most touching in literature. The sketch 
which Strauss has given of his early friend and fellow 
student Maerklin, 47 gradually surrendering one cher- 
ished truth after another, until he doubted all but 
the law of conscience ; then devoting himself in the 
strength of it with unflinching industry to education ; 
until at last he died in the dark, without belief in God 
or hope, cheered only by the consciousness of having 
tried to find truth and do his duty : — the sad tale, told 
by two remarkable biographers, of Sterling, 48 doubting, 
renouncing the ministry, yet thirsting for truth, and at 
last solacing himself in death by the hopes offered by 
the Bible, to the eternal truths of which his doubting 
heart had always clung : — the memoir of the adopted 
son of our own university, Blanco White, 49 a mind in 
which faith and doubt were perpetually waging war, 
till the grave closed over his truth-searching and care- 
worn spirit : — the confessions of one of our own sons of 
the successive " phases of faith " 50 through which his 
soul passed from evangelical Christianity to a spiritual 
Deism, a record of heart-struggles which takes its place 
among the pathetic works of autobiography, where in- 
dividuals have unveiled their inner life for the instruc- 
tion of their fellow-men : — all these are instances where 

47 Christian Maerklin (1807-1340), a fellow student of Strauss at 
Tubingen, whose views were unsettled, partly by a tone like that of the 
Renaissance derived from the contrast of classic and Christian culture, and 
partly by the philosophical speculations of the time. He embraced pan- 
theism and the mythical idea of Christianity. For ten years after 1840 
he undertook ministerial work, and then left the church, and till his death 
in 1849 devoted himself with assiduity to the business of education. A 
short memoir of him was written by Strauss in 1S51, C. Maerklin, ein 
Lebens-und-Character-Bild aus der Gegenwart ; a brief review of which 
is given in the National Review, No. 7. 

46 Sterling (1806-1844), a clergyman, curate to archdeacon Hare. 
His works were edited, with a memoir prefixed, by the archdeacon in 
1848 ; and a life written of him by Carlyle (18-51.) 

4a Blanco White (1 775-1 841), a Spanish priest, who became a pro- 
testant, and a refugee in England. He was much respected in Oxford, 
and the University gave him a degree. He afterwards turned unitarian, 
and perhaps at last deist. His life was published in 1845 ; and his mental 
character analysed in the Quarterly Review No. 151, and the Christian 
Remembrancer vol. 10. 

60 Mr. F. Newman. See Lect. VIII. 



LECTUKE I. 35 

the great moral and spiritual problems that belong to 
the condition of our race may be seen embodied in the 
sorrowful experience of individuals. They are in- 
stances of rare value for psychological study in refer- 
ence to the history of doubt ; sad beacons of warning 
and of guidance. Accordingly, in the history of free 
thought we must not altogether neglect the spiritual 
biography of the doubter, though only able to indicate 
it by a lev/ touches ; by an etching, not a photograph. 

¥e have now added to the explanation before given 
of the province of our inquiry, and of the law of the 
action of free thought on religion, an account of the 
moral and intellectual causes which operate in the his- 
tory of unbelief, and have sufficiently explained the 
mode in which the subject will be treated. 

The use of the inquiry will, it is hoped, be apparent 
both in its theoretical and practical relations. It is 
designed to have an intellectual value not only as in- 
struction but as argument. The tendency of it will be 
in some degree polemical as well as didactic, refuting 
error by analysing it into its causes, repelling present 
attacks by studying the history of former ones. 

It is one peculiar advantage belonging to the philo- 
sophical investigation of the history of thought, that 
even the odious becomes valuable as an object of study, 
the pathology of the soul as well as its normal action. 
Philosophy takes cognisance of error as well as of truth, 
inasmuch as it derives materials from both for discov- 
ering a theory of the grounds of belief and disbelief. 
Hence it follows that the study of the natural history 
of doubt combined with the literary, if it be the means 
of affording an explanation of a large class of facts rela- 
ting to the religious history of man and the sphere of 
the remedial operations of Christ's church, will have a 
practical value as well as speculative. 

Such an inquiry, if it be directed, as in the present 
lectures, to the analysis of the intellectual rather than 
the emotional element of unbelief, as being that which 
has been less generally and less fully explored, will 
require to be supplemented by a constant reference to 



36 LECTURE I. 

the intermixture of the other element, and the conse- 
quent necessity of taking account of the latter in esti- 
mating the whole phenomenon of doubt. But within 
its own sphere it will have a practical and polemical 
value, if the course of the investigation shall show that 
the various forms of unbelief, when studied from the 
intellectual side, are corollaries from certain metaphysi- 
cal or critical systems. The analysis itself will have 
indirectly the force of an argument. The discovery of 
the causes of a disease contains the germ of the cure. 
Error is refuted when it is referred to the causes which 
produce it. 

Nor will the practical value of the inquiry be re- 
stricted to its use as a page in the spiritual history of 
the human mind, but will belong to it also as a chapter 
in the history of the church. For even if in the study 
of the contest our attention be almost wholly restricted 
to the movements of one of the two belligerents, and 
only occasionally directed to the evidences on which the 
faith of the church in various crises reposed, and by 
which it tried to repel the invader, yet the knowledge 
of the scheme of attack cannot fail to be a valuable 
accompaniment to the study of the defence. 51 

Thus the natural history of doubt, viewed as a chap- 
ter of human history, like the chapter of physiology 
which studies a disease, will point indirectly to the 
cure, or at least to the mode of avoiding the causes 
which induce the disease ; while the literary history of 
it, viewed as a chapter of church history, will con- 
tribute the results of experience to train the Christian 
combatant. 

The subject will however not only have an intellec- 
tual value in being at once didactic and polemical, 
offering an explanation of the causes of unbelief and 
furnishing hints for their removal ; but it cannot fail 
also to possess a moral value in reference to the con- 
science and heart of the disputant, in teaching the 
lesson of mercy towards the unbeliever, and deep pity 

51 See further remarks concerning the purpose of the course of Lec- 
tures in Lect. VIII. 



LECTTJKE I. 37 

for the heart wounded with doubts. An intelligent ac- 
quaintance with the many phases of history operates like 
foreign travel in widening the sympathies ; and increase 
of knowledge creates the moderation which gains the 
victory through attracting an enemy instead of repel- 
ling him. Bigotry is founded on ignorance and fear. 
True learning is temperate, because discriminating ; 
forbearing, because courageous. If we place ourselves 
in the position of an opponent, and try candidly to un- 
derstand the process by which he was led to form his 
opinions, indignation will subside into pity, and enmity 
into grief : the hatred will be reserved for the sin, not 
for the sinner ; and the servant of Jesus Christ will 
thus catch in some humble measure the forbearing love 
which his divine Master showed to the tirst doubting 
disciple. 52 As the sight of suffering in an enemy 
changes the feeling of anger into pity, so the study of a 
series of spiritual struggles makes us see in an oppo- 
nent, not an enemy to be crushed, but a brother to be 
won. The utility of a historic treatment of doubt is 
suggested by moral as well as intellectual grounds. 

I hope therefore that if I follow the example of some 
of my predecessors, 53 in giving a course of lectures his- 
torical rather than polemical, evincing the critic rather 
than the advocate, seeking for truth rather than vic- 
tory, analysing processes of evidence rather than re- 
futing results, my humble contribution toward the 
knowledge of the argument of the Christian evidences 
will be considered to come fairly within the design 
intended by the founder of the lecture. 

It may well be believed that in the execution of so 
large a scheme I have felt almost overwhelmed under a 
painful sense of its difficulty. If even I may venture 
to hope that a conscientious study in most cases of the 

82 John xx. 26-29. 

63 E. g. Mr. J. J. Conybeare (1824), on the History and Limits of the 
Secondary Interpretation of Scripture ; Dr. Burton (1829), The Heresies 
of the Apostolic Age ; Dr. Hampden (1832), The Scholastic Philosophy 
in relation to Christian llieology ; as well as several works which investi- 
gate doctrines historically, such as the Lectures on the Atonement by Dr. 
Thomson (1853), by Dr. Hessey on the Sabbath (1860). 



3S LECTURE I. 

original sources of information may save me from liter- 
ary mistakes, yet there is a danger lest the size of the 
subject should preclude the possibility of constant clear- 
ness ; or lest the very analysis of the errors of the sys- 
tems named, may produce a painful, if not an injurious, 
impression. In an age too of controversy, those who 
speak on difficult questions incur a new danger, of being 
misunderstood from the sensitiveness with which ear- 
nest men not unreasonably watch them. The attitude 
of suspicion may cause impartiality to be regarded as 
indifference to truth, fairness as sympathy with error. 
I am not ashamed therefore to confess, that under the 
oppressive sense of these various feelings I have been 
wont to go for help to the only source where the bur- 
dened heart can find consolation ; and have sought, in 
the communion with the Father of spirits which prayer 
opens to the humblest, a temper of candour, of rever- 
ence, and of the love of truth. In this spirit I have 
made my studies ; and what I have thus learned I shall 
teach. 



LECTUEE II. 



THE LITERARY OPPOSITION OF HEATHENS AGAH\ T ST CHRIS- 
TIANITY IN THE EARLY AGES. 



1 Cor. i. 22-24. 
Tlie Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified; unto 
the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which arc called, Christ the wisdom 
of God. 



I 



T has been already stated \ that in the first great 
struggle of the human mind against the Christian 
religion the action of reason in criticising its claims 
assumed two forms, Gnosticism or rationalism within 
the church, and unbelief without. 

The origin and history of the former of these two 
lines of thought were once discussed in an elaborate 
course of Bampton Lectures 2 ; and though subsequent 
investigation has added new sources of information 3 , 

1 See above, p. 8. 

2 By Dr. Burton in 1829, An Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apos- 
tolic Age. 

3 Burton was such a careful student, that he hardly omitted anything 
on the subject which had been published up to his time. Subsequent 
investigations have added little material directly for the knowledge of 
Gnosticism, but much for a better appreciation of those sources from 
which it sprung. The oriental philosophy, as is shown in note 3 to Leet. 
I, is much better known ; in like manner the Neo-Platonic. The Jewish 
Cabbala has also been made known by A. Franck (3Ie?noires sur la Cab- 
bale), The speculations too of the new Tubingen school, of which Baur's 
work on Gnosis, 1835, is an example, have been specially directed to the 
study of the orir/ines of the Christian church and of Gnostic heresy, and 
however unsatisfactory in results, present much valuable research. Kurtz 



40 lectuee n. 

and it would be consonant to our general object to trace 
briefly the speculations of the various schools of Gnos- 
tics, — Greek, Oriental, or Egyptian, — the want of 
space necessitates the omission of these topics. In the 
-present lecture we shall accordingly restrict ourselves to 
the history of the other line of thought, and trace the 
grounds alleged by the intelligent heathens who ex- 
amined Christianity, for declining to admit its claims, 
from the time of its rise to the final downfall of hea- 
thenism. 

The truest modern resemblance to this struggle is 
obviously to be found in the disbelief shown by educated 
heathens in pagan countries to whom Christianity is 
proclaimed in the present day. It was not until the 
establishment of Christianity as the state religion by 
Constantine had given it political and moral victory, 
that it was possible for unbelief to assume its modern 
aspect, of being the attempt of reason to break away 
from a creed which is an acknowledged part of the 
national life. The first opponents accordingly whose 
views we shall study, Lucian, Celsus, Porphyry, Iiiero- 
cles, are heathen unbelievers. Julian is the earliest 
that we encounter who rejected Christianity after hav- 
ing been educated in it. 

The resemblance however to this struggle is not 
wholly restricted to heathen lands. There have been 
moments in the history of nations, or of individuals, 
when a Christian standard of feeling or of thought has 
been so far obliterated that a state of public disbelief 
and philosophical attack similar to the ancient heathen 
has reappeared, and the tone of the early unbelievers, 
and sometimes even their specific doubts, have been 
either borrowed or reproduced. 4 

in his Kirchenr/cschichle § 48-50, and Hase, Id. § 75-82, refer to several 
other monographs of the same kind. See also the discussion on Gnostic 
sects in Professor Norton's Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 
vol. ii. 

4 Such instances are seen in the Eenaissance, in the state of France 
during the eighteenth century, and in some of the writings of the English 
deists and German critics, as will be shown in subsequent lectures. A 
general view is given, in the introduction to Houtteville's Le Christianisme 



LECTTJKE II. 41 

In this portion of the history we encounter a diffi- 
culty peculiar to it, in being compelled to form an 
estimate of the opinions described, from indirect infor- 
mation. The treatises of the more noted writers that 
opposed Christianity have perished ; some through 
natural causes, but those of Porphyry and Julian 
through the special order of a Christian emperor, 
Theodosius II., in A.D. 435. 

In the absence accordingly of the original writings, 
we must discover the grounds for the rejection of Chris- 
tianity by the aid of the particular treatises of evidence 
written by Christian fathers expressly in refutation of 
them, which occasionally contain quotations of the lost 
works ; and also by means of the general apologies 
written on behalf of the Christian religion, together 
with slight notices of it occurring in heathen literature. 
The latter will inform us concerning the miscellaneous 
objections current, the former concerning the definite 
arguments of the writers who expressly gave reasons for 
disbelieving Christianity. 5 

We possess a large treatise of Origen against Celsus ; 
passages, directed against Porphyry, of Eusebius, 
Jerome, and Augustin ; a tract of Eusebius against 
Hi erodes ; and a work of Cyril of Alexandria against 
Julian. Yet it is never perfectly satisfactory to be 
obliged to read an opinion through the statement of an 
opponent of it. The history of philosophical contro-^ 
versy shows that intellectual causes, such as the natural 

prouve par des faits, of " the method of the principal authors for and 
against Christianity from its beginning," (translated 1739.) Hase also 
quotes a work of D. Baumgarten-Crusius, De Scriptoribus ssec. II. qui 
novam relig. impugnarunt, 1845. 

5 There are four sources of information in reference to the opinions 
of the heathens concerning Christianity; viz. (1) the slight notices which 
occur in heathen literature, on which see note 12 ; (2) the works written 
expressly against Christianity, which are sufficiently analysed in the text 
and foot-notes ; (3) the special replies to these attacks, on which see notes 
13, 1*7, 19; (4) the general treatises on evidence in the early fathers, on 
which see note 49. The recent publication of Pressense's work, 2 e serie, 
t. 2, where the analysis of the two latter sources is ably executed, renders 
unnecessary the publication of an analysis of each. Several of them are 
also analysed in Schramm, Analysis Pat rum, 1782. 



42 LECTUEE II. 

tendency to answer an argument on principles that its 
author would not concede, to reply to conclusions 
instead of premises, or to impute the corollaries which 
are supposed to be deducible from an opinion, may lead 
to unintentional misrepresentation of a doctrine refuted, 
even where no moral causes such as bias or sarcasm 
contribute to the result. Aristotle's well-known criti- 
cism of Plato's theory of archetypes is a pertinent illus- 
tration. 6 

The slight difficulty thus encountered, in extracting 
the real opinions of the early unbelievers out of the 
replies of their Christian opponents, may for the most 
part be avoided by first realising the state of belief 
which existed in reference to the heathen religion, 
which for our present purpose may be treated as homo- 
geneous throughout the whole Roman world. We shall 
thus be enabled as it were to foresee the line of opinion 
which would be likely to be adopted in reference to a 
new religion coming with the claims and character of 
Christianity. This prefatory inquiry will also coincide 
with our general purpose of analysing the influence of 
intellectual causes in the production of unbelief. 

Four separate tendencies may be' distinguished 
among heathens in the early centuries in reference to 
religion : 7 viz. the tendency, (1) to absolute unbelief,' 
(2) to a bigoted attachment to a national creed, (3) to a 
philosophical, and (4) a mystical theory of religion. 

The tendency to total disbelief of the supernatural 
prevailed in the Epicurean school. A type of the more 
earnest spirits of this class is seen at a period a little 
earlier than the Christian era in Lucretius, living 
mournfully in the moral desert which his doubts had 

6 It has been recently made a matter of dispute whether Platens own 
description of the teaching of the Sophists is not rendered untrustworthy 
by these faults. See Grote's History of Greece, vol. viii. ch. 67. 

7 These tendencies are discussed so fully and with such great learning 
by Neander {Kirchengcsckichtc, vol. i. Introduction), and by Pressense, 
Hist, dc VEglise C/iritienne, (2 e serie, t. ii. ch. 1), to whom I am largely 
indebted, that it is unnecessary to quote the original sources. Neander 
exhibits an analogous process in the Jewish religion, in sects of the later 
times of the nation. See also Dollinger's Judcntltuni und Hcidcnthum 
(translated 1862.) 



lecture n. 43 

scorched into barrenness. 8 The world is to him a 
scene unguided by a Providence : death is uncheered 
by the hope of a future life. An example of the flip- 
pant sceptic is found in Lucian in the second century, 
A. D. The great knowledge of life which travel had 
afforded him created a universal ridicule for religion ; 
but his unbelief evinced no seriousness, no sadness. 
His humour itself is a type of the man. Lacking the 
bitter earnestness which gave sting to the wit of 
Aristophanes, and the courteous playfulness exhibited 
in the many-sided genius of Plato, he was a caricaturist 
rather than a painter : his dialogues are farces of life 
rather than satires It has been well remarked, that 
human society has no worse foe than a universal scoffer. 
Lacking aspirations sufficiently lofty to appreciate 
religion, and wisdom to understand the great crises that 
give birth to it, such a man destroys not superstition 
only but the very faculty of belief. 3 It is easy to per- 
ceive that to such minds Christianity would be a mark 
for the same jests as other creeds. 

A second tendency, most widely opposed in appear- 
ance to the sceptical, but which was too often its natu- 
ral product, showed itself in a bigoted attachment to 
the national religion. 10 Among the masses such faith 
was real though unintelligent, but in educated men it 
had become artificial. When an ethnic religion is 
young, faith is fresh and gives inspiration to its art 
and its poetry. In a more critical age, the historic 
spirit rationalizes the legends, while the philosophic 
allegorizes the myths ; and thoughtful men attempt to 
rise to a spiritual worship of which rites are symbols. 11 
But in the decay of a religion, the supernatural loses its 

8 The mental character of Lucretius has been well analysed by Mr. 
Sellar, in the volume of Oxford Essays, 1855. 

9 Pressense (ut sup. 2 e serie, t. ii. 77 seq.) has ably sketched the char- 
acter of Lucian. His utter scepticism is seen in the Zeus rpayooBos 
(47-49). 

10 Instances, with references, may be seen in the introductory chapter 
in Ncander, p. 18 seq. 

11 The Greek literature offers the opportunity for studying the whole 
process. See Grote, i. ch. 16, previously quoted. . 



44 LECTURE II. 

hold of the class of educated minds, and is regarded as 
imposture, and the support which they lend to worship 
is political. They fall back on tradition to escape their 
doubts, or they think it politically expedient to enforce 
on the masses a creed which they contemn in heart. 
Such a ground of attachment to paganism is described 
in the dialogue of the Christian apologist, Minucius 
Felix. 12 It would not only coincide with the first- 
named tendency in denying the importance of Christi- 
anity, but would join in active opposition. In truth, it 
marks the commencement of the strong reaction which 
took place in favour of heathenism at the close of the 
second century, — twofold in its nature ; a popular reac- 
tion of prejudice or of mysticism on the part of the 
lower classes, and a political or philosophical one of 
the educated. 13 Both were in a great degree produced 
by Eastern influences. The substitution which was 
gradually taking place of naturalism for humanism, 
the adoration of cosmical and mystical powers instead 
of the human attributes of the deities of the older 
creed, was the means of re-awakening popular super- 
stition, while at the same time the Alexandrian specu- 
lations of Neo-Platonism gave a religious aspect to 
philosophy. 

Accordingly the third, or philosophical tendency in 
reference to religion, distinct from the two already 
named, of positive unbelief in the supernatural on the 
one hand, and devotion sincere or artificial to heathen 
worship on the other, comprises, in addition to the older 
schools of Stoics and Platonists, the new eclectic school 
just spoken of. The three schools agreed in extracting 

12 The character Cajcilius, in the dialogue of Minucius Felix, is made 
to express this view, (c. 8. and elsewhere.) A useful modern edition of 
this dialogue is given by H. A. Holden, 1853. 

J3 This reaction deserves to be made the subject of special study. 
Pressense is one of the few writers who have pointed out its importance, 
(2 e serie, t. ii. eh. 1.) Also compare the remarks in Benjamin Constant's 
posthumous work Du Poli/thcisme Romain, 1833. (t. ii. 1. 12, 13, 15.) 1 
Kurtz refers on this subject to Tzchirner's der Fall dvs Heidenthum, i. 404. 
(1820.); II. Kritzler's Helden-zeiten des Chriatenthum, vol. i. (1856), ana 
Vogt's Neo-Platonismus wd Christenthum (183G.) Also Cfr. Tzcbirner'a 
Apologctik (1804.) c. 2, parts 2 and 3. 



LECTURE II. 45 

a philosophy out of the popular religion, by searching 
for historic or moral truth veiled in its symbols. The 
Stoic, as being the least speculative, employed itself 
less with religion than the others. Its doctrine, ethical 
rather than metaphysical, concerned with the will 
rather than the intellect, juridical and formal rather 
than speculative, seemed especially to give expression 
to the Roman character, as the Platonic to the Greek, 
or as the eclectic to the hybrid, half Oriental half 
European, which marked Alexandria. In the writings 
of M. Aurelius, one of the emperors most noted for the 
persecution of the church, it manifests itself rather as a 
rule of life than a subject for belief, as morality rather 
than religion. 14 The Stoic opposition to Christianity 
was the contempt cf the Gaul or Roman for what was 
foreign, or of ethical philosophy for religion. 

The Platonic doctrine, so far as it is represented in 
an impure form in the early centuries, sought, as of old, 
to explore the connexion between the visible and in- 
visible worlds, and to rise above the phenomenon into 
the spiritual. Hence in its view of heathen religion it 
strove to rescue the ideal religion from the actual, and 
to discover the one revelation of the Divine ideal amid 
the great variety of religious traditions and modes 
of worship. But its invincible dualism, separating by 
an impassable chasm God from the world, and mind 
from matter, identifying goodness with the one, evil 
with the other, prevented belief in a religion like Chris- 
tianity, which was penetrated by the Hebrew concep- 
tions of the universe, so alien both to dualism and 
pantheism. 

14 The Meditations of M. Aurelius were edited by Gataker (1698.) 
See concerning them Fabricius, Biblioth. Grcec. v. 500, (ed Harles) ; 
Donaldson,' Gr. Lat. ch. 54, § 2, ; 'and concerning his opinions, Neander's 
Jfirchcnr/esch. I. 177. Mr. G. Long has recently translated the Meditations 
into English. The philosophy of the Roman Stoics, of which M. Aurelius 
is one of the best types, is briefly but excellently treated by Sir A. Grant 
in the Oxford Essays for 1858. Also consult Ritter's History of Philoso' 
yJiy, vol. iv. b. 12, ch. 3, and Neander's paper on the relation of Greek 
Ethics to Christianity in the Zeitschrift fur Christlicke Wissenchaft tind 
Christliches Leben (1850,) translated in the American Bibliotheca Sacra 
for 1853. 



46 LECTURE II. 

The line is not very marked which separates this 
philosophy from the professed revival of Plato's teach- 
ing, which received the name of Neo-Platonism, which 
was the philosophy with which Christianity came most 
frequently into conflict or contact during the third and 
two following centuries (10). Fastening on the more 
mystical parts of Plato, to the neglect of the more prac- 
tical, it probably borrowed something also from Eastern 
mysticism. The object of the school was to find an ex- 
planation of the problem of existence, by tracing the 
evolution of the absolute cause in the Universe through a 
trinal manifestation, as being, thought, and action. 
The agency by which the human mind apprehended 
this process lay in the attainment of a kind of insight 
wherein the organ of knowledge is one with the object 
known, a state of mind and feeling whereby the mind 
gazes on a sphere of being which is closed to the ordi- 
nary faculties. Schelling's theory of " intellectual in- 
tuition " is the modern parallel to this Neo-Platonic 
state of eK(TTacrL$ or ivOovaLacr/j-o^. This philosophy, 
though frequently described in modern times as bear- 
ing a resemblance to Christianity in method, as being 
the knowledge of the one absolute Being by means of 
faith, is really most widely opposed in its interior spirit. 
It is essentially pantheism. Its monotheistic aspect, 
caught by contact with Semitic thought, is exterior 
only. Its deity, which seems personal, is really only 
the personification of an abstraction, a mere instance of 
mental realism. Man's personality, which Christianity 
states clearly, was lost in the universe ; religious facts in 
metaphysical ideas. 15 Religion accordingly would be 
exclusive, confined to an aristocracy of education ; and 
the existing national cultus would be appropriated as a 
sensuous religion suited for the masses, a visible type 

15 Pressense even suggests (2 e . sevie, t. ii. p. 62) that the ultimate 
result was almost the nirvana of Budhism. It will be observed, that the 
view taken in the text concerning the Neo-Platonic philosophy, for which 
I am largely indebted to Pressense, is different from that which regards it 
as monotheism, and which has been made popular by Mr. Kingslcy's novel, 
Jlypatia, and by his lectures on the Schools of Alexandria (Lcct. 3), 
1854. 



LECTUEE II. 47 

of the invisible. The analogy which this philosophy 
bore to Christianity in aim and office, as well as the 
rivalry of other schools which is implied in its eclectic 
aspect, caused it to take up an attitude of opposition 
to the Christian system to which it claimed to bear 
affinity. 

The mystical element in this philosophy enabled 
some minds to find a home for the theurgy which had 
been increased by the importation of eastern ideas. 16 
They form as it were the connecting link with the 
fourth religious tendency, which manifested itself in the 
craving for a communication from the world invisible, 
which found its satisfaction in magic and in a spirit of 
fanaticism. Some of these fanatics were doubtless also 
impostors ; 17 but some were high-minded men struggling 
after truth, of wiiom possibly an example is seen at an 
early period in Apollonius of Tyana ; deceived rather 
than deceivers. This tendency operated in some minds 
to cause them to reduce Christianity to ordinary magic 
and prodigies ; while among a few it created yearnings 
for a nobler satisfaction, which drew them toward 
Christianity, as in the case of the Clemens, whose auto- 
biography professes to be given in the well-known work 
of the early ages, the Clementines. (11) 

Such seem to have been the chief forms of religious 
thought existing among the heathen to whom Chris- 
tianity presented itself, on which were founded the 
preparation of heart which led to the acceptance of its 
message, or the prejudices which rejected its claims ; — 
viz. among the masses, a sensuous unintelligent belief 
in polytheism ; — among the educated, disorganization 
of belief; either materialism, the total rejection of the 
supernatural, and a political attachment on the prin- 
ciple of expedience to existing creeds ; or philosophy, 
ethical, dualistie, pantheistic, despising religions as 
mere organic products of national thought, and trying 

16 Eitter happily calls this philosophy Neo-Pythagoreanism, as the 
former was Neo-Platonism. 

17 E. g. the Alexander of Pontus, whom Lucian holds up to ridicule. 
On Apollonius of Tyana, see a subsequent note. 



48 LECTURE IL 

to seize the central truths of which they were the ex- 
pression ; or a mystical craving after the supernatural, 
degrading its victims into fanatics. The further analy- 
sis of these tendencies would show their connexion with 
the threefold classification before given of the tests of 
truth into sense, reason, and feeling. 

We have thus prepared the way for interpreting 
the lines of argument used in opposition to Christianity, 
and shall now proceed to sketch in chronological suc- 
cession the history of the chief intellectual attacks made 
by unbelievers. 

It is not until the middle of the second century that 
we find Christianity becoming the subject of literary 
investigation. Incidental expressions either of scorn 
or of misapprehension form the sole allusions in the 
heathen writers of earlier date (12) ; but in the reigns 
of the Antonines, the Christians began to attract notice 
and to meet with criticism. "We read of a work writ- 
ten against Christianity by a Cynic, Crescens, in the 
reis;n of Antoninus Pius ; 1B and of another by the tutor 
of Marcus Aurelius, Fronto of Cirta, 19 in which prob- 
ably the imperial persecution was justified. 

It is at this time too that we meet with an attempt 
to hold the Christians up to ridicule in a satire of 
Lucian, 20 which well exemplifies the views belonging to 

18 Crescens is named in Justin Martyr (Apolog. II. 3), who wrote 
against his attack; Tatian (Orat. adv. Grac. c. 3); Eusebius (Feci. Hist. 
iv. 16). The last, on the strength of Tatian, accuses him of causing Jus- 
tin's death. 

19 Cornelius Fronto is referred to by Minucius Felix (Octav. ch. 9 and 
31), as having charged incestuous banquets on the Christians. Tzchiincr 
(Opusc. Acad. 1829. p. 294) conjectures that his work may have been a 
legal speech against some Christian, which implied a defence of the impe- 
rial persecution. Part of Fronto's works have been found during the 
present century, and edited with a dissertation on his life and writings by 
Angelo Mai. (On his work against Christianity, see p. 57 of the disserta- 
tion.) A brief account of them may be found in Smith's Biographical 
Dictionary sub Fronto. 

20 Lucian probably lived from about A.D. 125 to 200. Consult the 
account given by Donaldson (6V. Lit. ch. 54, § 3 and 4) of his life, 
opinions, and works, where a comparison is drawn between him and Vol- 
taire ; also Mr. Dyer's article Lvciamcs in Smith's Biographical Dictionary; 
also Fabricius' Bibliotheca Grccca, v. 340 (ed. Harles); Lardner's Collec- 



lecture n. 49 

the sceptical of tlie four classes into which we have 
divided the religious opinions of the heathens. His 
tract, the Peregrinus Proteus, it can hardly be doubted, 
is intended as a satire on Christian martyr doni (13). 
Peregrinus 21 is a Cynic philosopher, who after a life of 
early villany is made by Lucian to play the hypocrite 
at Antioch and join himself to the Christians, ' miser- 
able men ' (as he calls them), ' who, hoping for immor- 
tality in soul and body, had a foolish contempt of 
death, and suffered themselves to be persuaded that 
they were brethren, because, having abandoned the 
Greek gods, they worshipped the crucified sophist, liv- 
ing according to his laws.' 22 Peregrinus, when a 
Christian, soon rises to the dignity of bishop, and is 
worshipped as a god ; and when imprisoned for his 
religion is visited by Christians from all quarters. 
Afterwards, expelled the church, he travels over the 
world ; and at last for the sake of glory burns himself 
publicly at Olympia about A. D. 165. His end is 
described in a tragico-comic manner, and a legend is 
recounted that at his death he was seen in white, and 
that a hawk ascended from his pyre. 

Lucian has here used a real name to describe a 
class,, not a person. He has given a caricature paint- 
ing from historic elements. There seems internal 
evidence to show that he was slightly acquainted with 
the books of the early Christians. 23 It has even been 
conjectured that he might have read and designed to 
parody the epistles of Ignatius. 21 "With more proba- 
tion, of Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, Works, vol. viii. ch. 19. The 
satire referred to above is entitled Tlepl ttjs Uepeypivov reXevr?]?. 

21 We learn from other writers that Peregrinus was a real character ; 
but Aulus Gellius (xii. 11), gives a much more favourable character of 
him than Lucian. 

28 The passage (of which this is Tzchirner's pai\aphrase) is: TltireiKacn 
yap auTOvs ol KaKO^al/xoves rb /xeu bXov aQdvaroi eaeaOai Kal fiiucreaOai rbv 
asl xpovou, Trap' o Kal Karacppovovcri rov Qavdrov na\ ckSutss aurobs iTndifio- 
acriv ol ttoWo'i ' eTreira Se 6 vo/j.o9stt]S 6 rrpcoTos tireio-sv avrobs a>s a5eA.<f<ol 
Trdi/res dev aWrjAuv, iweidav aira£ irapafidvTts &eobs /u.eu robs 'E\\'f]i>LKobs 
airapwqcrwvTai, rbv 5e av€aKoKomcrp.iuov £kclvou o~o(pio~T7)v avrwu Trpoo-Kwco^rcn 
Kal Kara, robs ins'ivov vojjlovs fSioovi. Pereg. Prot. § 13. 

23 Cfr. Pereg. Prot. g 11 and 12. 

24 Bp. Pearson considered ( Vindic. Ignat. part, ii. 6,) that an allusion 

3 



50 LECTURE n. 

bility we may believe tbat he bad beard of and misun- 
derstood tbe heroic bearing of the Christian martyrs in 
the moment of their last suffering. Pope Alexander 
YII. in 1664: placed this tract in the index of prohibited 
books : yet even beneath the satire we rather hail 
Lucian as an unconscious witness to several beautiful 
features in the character of the Christians of his time : 25 
viz. their worship of " the crucified sophist," who was 
their adorable Lord ; their guilelessness ; their brotherly 
love ; their strict discipline ; their common meals ; 
their union ; their benevolence ; their joy in death. 
The points which he depicts in his satire are, their 
credulity in giving way to Peregrinus ; their unintelli- 
gent belief in Christ and in immortality ; their factious- 
ness in aiding Peregrinus when in prison ; their pomp- 
ous vanity in martyrdom, and possibly their tendency 
to believe legends respecting a martyr's death. His 
satire is contempt, not anger, nor dread. It is the 
humour of a thorough sceptic, which discharged itself 
on all religions alike ; and indicates one type of opposi- 
tion to Christianity; viz. the contempt of those who 
thought it folly. 

Yery unlike to him was his well-known contempo- 
rary Celsus. If the one represents the scoffer, the other 
represents the philosopher. Not despising Christianity 
with scorn like Tacitus, nor jeering at it with humour 
like Lucian, Celsus had the wisdom to apprehend dan- 
ger to heathenism, measuring Christianity in its mental 
and not its material relations ; and about the reign of 
Marcus Aurelius wrote against it a work entitled A6yo$ 
a\r)6r t s, which was considered of such importance, that 
Origen towards the close of his own life 2G wrote a large 
and elaborate reply to it. 

is made to the death of Ignatius, (Cfr. Le Moyne, Varia Sacra (pref.) 
1694, for a somewhat similar argument in reference to Polycarp.) A. 
Planck in his Lucian und Christenthum (part i.) in Stud, und Krit. 1851, 
the references to which are given in note 12 of these lectures, tries to show 
that Lucian alludes even to Ignatius's letters. If he does not succeed in 
establishing this point, he at least (part iii.) makes Lucian 1 s knowledge of 
Christian literature extremely probable. 

25 These are enumerated by A. Planck, (id. part ii.) 

26 Huet thinks the date was subsequent to A. D. 246. (Origeniana i. 
e. 3, § 11, ed. 1668.) 



LECTURE II. 51 

We know nothing of Celsus's life. 27 There is even 
an uncertainty as to the school of philosophy to which 
he belonged. External evidence seems to testify that 
he was an Epicurean ; but internal would lead us to 
classify him with the Platonic. Unscrupulous in argu- 
ment, confounding canonical gospels with apocryphal, 
and Christians with heretical sects, delighting in search- 
ing for contradictions, incapable of understanding the 
deeper aspects of Christianity, he has united in his 
attack all known objections, making use of minute criti- 
cism, philosophical theory, piquant sarcasm, and elo- 
quent invective, as the vehicle of his passionate as- 
sault. 

It is impossible to recover a continuous account of 
the work of Celsus from the treatise of his respondent ; 
but a careful study of the fragments embedded in the 
text of Origen will perhaps restore the framework of 
the original sufficiently to enable us to perceive the 
points of his opposition to Christianity, and the manner 
in which his philosophy stood in the way of the recep- 
tion of it. (14) 

Celsus commences by introducing a Jewish rabbi to 
attack Christianity from the monotheistic stand-point 
of the earlier faith. 28 The Jew is first made to direct 
his criticism against the documents of Christianity, and 

27 There is a doubt whether the Celsus against whom Oiigen wrote is 
the friend to whom Lucian has addressed his life of the magician Alexan- 
der of Abonoteichus. The arguments on this question are stated and 
weighed in Neander's Kirchengeschiclite, vol. i. 169, and Baur's Geschiclite 
der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, p. 371. Both conclude that the persons 
were different. The evidence of their oneness is chiefly Origen's conjec- 
ture that they were the same person (Cont. Celsum. iv. 36.) The evidence 
against it is, (1) that Lucian's friend attacked magical rites ; the Celsus of 
Origen seems to have believed them : (2) that Lucian's friend was proba- 
bly an Epicurean, the other Celsus a Blatonist or Eclectic : (3) that the for- 
mer is praised for his mildness, the latter shows want of moderation. 
Pressense nevertheless (ut sup. vol. ii. p. 105) regards them as the same 
person. 

26 B. i. c. 28. The references are made to the chapters in the Bene- 
dictine edition by De la Rue (Paris, 1*733.) The earlier part of b. i. is 
miscellaneous in nature and seems prefatory ; and it is not easy to deter- 
mine the relation of Origen's remarks in it to the arrangement of Celsus's 
book. 



52 LECTUEE II. 

then the facts narrated. S9 He points out inconsistencies 
in the gospel narratives of the genealogy of Christ ; 3a 
utters the most blasphemous calumnies concerning the 
incarnation ; 31 turns the narrative of the infancy into 
ridicule ; 32 imputes our Saviour's miracles to magic ; 33 
attacks his divinity; 34 and concentrates the bitterest 
raillery on the affecting narrative of our blessed Lord's 
most holy passion. Each fact of deepening sorrow in 
that divine tragedy, the betrayal, 35 the mental anguish, 
the sacred agony, 30 is made the subject of remarks char- 
acterized no less by coarseness of taste and unfairness, 
than to the Christian mind by irreverence. Instead of 
his heart being touched by the majesty of our Saviour's 
sorrow, Celsus only finds an argument against the di- 
vine character of the adorable sufferer. 37 The wonders 
accompanying Christ's death are treated as legends ; 38 
the resurrection regarded as an invention or an optical 
delusion. 39 

After Celsus has thus made the Jew the means of a 
ruthless attack on Christianity, lie himself directs a 
similar one against the Jewish religion itself. 40 He goes 
to the origin of their history ; describes the Jews as 
having left Egypt in a sedition ; 41 as being true types 
of the Christians in their ancient factiousness ; 42 con- 
siders Moses to be only on a level with the early Greek 
legislators ; 43 regards Jewish rites like circumcision to 
be borrowed from Egypt ; charges anthropomorphism 
on Jewish theology, 44 and declines allowing the alle- 
gorical interpretation in explanation of it ; 45 examines 
Jewish prophecy, parallels it with heathen oracles, 46 and 
claims that the goodness not the truth of a prophecy 
ought to be considered ; 47 points to the ancient idolatry 
of the Jews as proof that they were not better than 

29 Speaking generally, B. i. ch. 27, 28, 32, may be taken as the one, 
and the rest of b. L, together with b. ii. as the other. 

30 B. ii. § 32. 3J B. i. 28, 32-35. 32 B. i. 37, 58, 66. 
33 B. i. 38, 68. 34 B. i. 57 ; ii. 9, &c. 35 B. ii. 21. 

30 B. ii. 24. 3T B. ii. 16. ™ B. iii. 38. 

39 B. iii. 59, 55, 57, 78. 40 B. iii. § 1 and elsewhere. 

41 B. iii. § 5. 42 B. iii. § 5. 43 B. i. 17, 18 ; i. 22. 

44 B. iv. 71 ; vi. 62. 45 B. iv. 48. 46 .B. vii. 3 ; viii. 45. 

47 B. vii. 14. 



LECTURE II. 53 

other nations ; 48 and to the destruction of Jerusalem as 
proof that they were not special favourites of heaven. 
At last he arrives at their idea of creation, 49 and here 
reveals the real ground of his antipathy. "While he 
objects to details in the narrative, such as the mention 
of days before the existence of the sun, 50 his real hatred 
is against the idea of the unity of God, and the freedom 
of Deity in the act of creation. It is the struggle of 
pantheism against theism. 

. When Celsus has thus made use of the Jew to refute 
Christianity from the Jewish stand-point, and after- 
wards refuted the Jew from his own, he proceeds to 
make his own attack on Christianity ; in doing which, 
he first examines the lives of Christians, 51 and afterwards 
the Christian doctrine ; M thus skilfully prejudicing the 
mind of his readers against the persons before attacking 
the doctrines. He alludes, to the quarrelsomeness 
shown in the various sects of Christians, 53 and repeats 
the calumnious suspicion of disloyalty, 54 want of pat- 
riotism, 55 and political uselessness ; 56 and hence defends 
the public persecution of them. 57 Filled with the eso- 
teric pride of ancient philosophy, he reproaches the 
Christians with their carefulness to proselytize the 
poor, 58 and to convert the vicious ; 59 thus unconsciously 
giving a noble testimony to one of the most divine fea- 
tures in our religion, and testifying to the preaching of 
the doctrine of a Saviour for sinners. 

Having thus defamed the Christians, he passes to 
the examination of the Christian doctrine, in its form, 
its method, and its substance. His aesthetic sense, 
ruined with the idolatry of form, and unable to appre- 
ciate the thought, regards the Gospels as defective and 
rude through simplicity. 60 The method of Christian 
teaching also seems to him to be defective, as lacking 
philosophy and dialectic, and as denouncing the use of 

48 B. iv. 22, 23. 49 B. iv. 74; vi. 49, &c. 

50 B. vi. 60. 51 B. iii. £2 B. v. vi. vii. 

53 B. iii. 10. 54 B. iii. 5, 14. 65 B. iii. § 55 ; viii. 73. 

66 B. viii. 69. 57 B. viii. 69. 58 B. iii. 44, 50. 

59 B. iii. 59, 62, 74. eo B. iii. 55 ; viii. 37. 



54 lectuee n. 

reason. 61 Lastly, lie turns to the substance of the dog- 
mas themselves. He distinguishes two elements in 
them, the one of which, as bearing resemblance to 
philosophy or to heathen religion, he regards as incon- 
testably true, but denies its originality, and endeavours 
to derive it from Persia or from Platonism ; 62 resolving, 
for example, the worship of a human being into the 
ordinary phenomenon of apotheosis. 63 The other class 
of doctrines which he attacks as false, consists of those 
which relate to creation, 61 the incarnation, 05 the fall, 66 
redemption, 67 man's place in creation, 68 moral conver- 
sions, 6 " and the resurrection of the dead. 70 His point of 
view for criticising them is derived from the funda- 
mental dualism of the Platonic system ; the eternal 
severance of matter and mind, of God and the world ; 
and the reference of good to the region of mind, evil to 
that of matter. Thus, not content with his former 
attack on the idea of creation in discussion with the 
Jew, he returns to the discussion from the philosophical 
side. His Platonism will not allow him to admit that 
the absolute God, the first Cause, can have any contact 
with matter. It leads him also to give importance to 
the idea of Sa/Vcwe?, or divine mediators, by which the 
chasm is filled betwen the ideal god and the world ; 71 
not being able otherwise to imagine the action of the 
pure ISea of God on a world of matter. Hence he 
blames Christians for attributing an evil nature to 
demons, and finds a reasonable interpretation of the 
heathen worship. 7 ' 2 The same dualist theory extin- 
guishes the idea of the incarnation, as a degradation of 
God; and also the doctrine of the fall, inasmuch as 
psychological deterioration is impossible if the soul be 
pure, and if evil be a necessary attribute of matter. 73 
With the fall, redemption also disappears, because the 

61 B. vii. 9; i. 2; i. 9; iii. 39; vi. 10. 

62 B. vi. 15 ; vi. 22, 58, 62 ; v. G3 ; vi. 1. 

63 B. iii. 22 ; vii. 28-30. c * B. iv. 37 ; vi. 49. 

66 B. iv. 14; v. 2 ; vii. 36. 6B B. iv. 62, 70. 

67 B. v. 14 ; vii. 28, 36 , vi. 78. fl * B. iv. 74, 76, 23. 

69 B. iii. 65. 70 B. v. 14, 15. 7I B. vii. 68 ; viii. (2-14) 35, 36. 
72 B. viii. 2. 73 B. iv. 99. 



lecture rr. 55 

perfect cannot admit of change ; Christ's coming could 
only be to correct what God already knew, or rectify 
what ought to have been corrected before. 74 Further, 
Celsus argues, if Divinity did descend, that it would 
not assume so lowly a form as Jesus. The same rigor- 
ous logic charges on Christianity the undue elevation of 
man, as well as the abasement of God. Celsus can 
neither admit man more than the brutes to be the final 
cause of the universe ; nor allow the possibility of man's 
nearness to God. 75 His pantheism, destroying the bar- 
rier which separates the material from the moral, 
obliterates the perception of the fact that a single free 
responsible being may be of more dignity than the uni- 
verse. 

Such is the type of a philosophical objector against 
Christianity, a little later than the middle of the second 
century. "We meet here for the first time a remarkable 
effort of pagan thought, endeavouring to extinguish 
the new religion ; the definite statements of a mind that 
investigated its claims and rejected it. Most of the 
objections of Celsus are sophistical ; a few are admitted 
difficulties ; but the philosophical class of them will be 
seen to be the corollary from his general principle 
before explained. 

A century intervenes before we meet with the next 
literary assailant, Porphyry. In the interval the new 
reactionary philosophy has fully taken root, and the 
fresh attack accordingly bears the impress of the new 
system. 

The chief objections made in the intervening period, 
as we collect them from the apologies, were such as 
belongs fitly to a transitional time, when Christianity 
was exciting attention but was not understood ; 76 and 
are chiefly the result of the second of the tendencies 
before named, viz., either of popular prejudice, or of 
the political ' alarm in reference to the social disorgani- 
zation likely to arise out of a large defection from the 

74 B. iv. 3, 7, 18. 75 B. iv. 74. 

76 On the alteration in the attacks, Cfr. Gerard (of Aberdeen), Com- 
pendium of Evidences, 1828 (part ii. ch. 1.) 



56 lecture n. 

religion of the empire, which expressed itself in overt 
acts of persecution on the part of the state. (15) Both 
equally lie beyond our field of investigation ; the one 
because it does not belong to the examination of Chris- 
tianity made by intelligent thought ; the other because 
it is the struggle of deeds, not of ideas, which only have 
an interest for us, if, as in Julian's case hereafter, the 
acts were dictated by the deliberate advice of persons 
who had attentively examined Christianity. 

The apprehensions of prejudice gradually subsided, 
and objections began to be based on grounds less ab- 
surd in character. The political opposition also was 
henceforth founded on a more subtle policy, and on an 
appreciation of the nature of Christianity. Soon after 
the middle of the third century we meet with the next 
attach of a purely literary kind, viz., by Porphyry, the 
most distinguished opponent that Christianity has yet 
encountered. 77 The pupil of Longinus, perhaps of 
Origen, 78 and the biographer and interpreter of PlotiU 
nus, he is best known for his logical writings, and for 
the development of the theory of predication in his 
introduction to the Categories, which formed the text on 
which hung the medieval speculations of scholasticism. 79 
His Syrian origin and oriental culture perhaps prepared 
him for a fusion of East and West, and for admitting a 
deeper admixture of mysticism into the Neo-Platonic 
philosophy, of which he was a disciple. The points of 
his approximation to Christianity are the result of those 
elements in which heathen philosophy most nearly 
approached to Christian truth, the development of 
which was stimulated in minds essentially anti-christian 

77 Porphyry lived from about A. D. 233 to 305. For his life and 
writings see Holstenius de Vit. Porphyr. (1630); Fabric. Bibl. Grcec. v. 
725. (ed. Harles) ; Lardner's Works, viii. 37 ; Donaldson's Gr. Lit. ch. 53, 
§ 7. For his attack on Christianity consult Neander's Kirchengesch. i. 290 ; 
Pressense ii. 156. 

7W His own words, quoted in Eusebius (Feci. Hist. iii. 19), have been 
thought to imply this, but seem merely to state his acquaintance in youth 
with Origen. See Holsten. Vit. Porphyr. p. 16. 

79 Cousin (rref. to Edition of Abelard's Sic et Non, p. 61, note 46,) 
considers that a passage which Boethius quoted from Porphyry was the 
means of reviving philosophical speculation on this point. 



LECTURE II. 57 

by the effort to find a rival to it. Admirably prepared 
by liis serious and spiritual tone to embrace Christian- 
ity, he nevertheless lived a disciple of paganism. His 
feelings rather than his reason led him to defend na- 
tional creeds. His philosophy and the Christian, which 
seemed to be aspirations after the same end, being 
designed to elevate the spirit above the world of sense, 
were really radically opposed. "Understanding there- 
fore the power of the Christian religion, he felt the ne- 
cessity for supplanting it ; and hoped to do so by spirit- 
ualizing the old creeds, which he harmonized with 
philosophy by means of regarding them as symbolic. 80 

His opposition to Christianity was not however 
based wholly on a prejudice of feeling. He was a man 
cultivated in all the learning of his age, and of a more 
generous temper than Celsns, and seems to have exer- 
cised much critical sagacity in the investigation of the 
claims of Christianity. About the year 270, while in 
retirement in Sicily, he wrote a book against the Chris- 
tians." 1 This work having been destroyed, we are left 
to gather its contents and the opinions of its authors 
from a few criticisms in Eusebius and Jerome. The 
entire work consisted of fifteen books ; and concerning 
only five of these is information afforded by them. 
Their remarks lead us to conjecture that it was an 
assault on Christianity in many relations. The books 
however of which we know the purpose, seem to have 
been critical rather than philosophical, directed against 

B0 He seems especially to have felt the difficulty -which was before 
noticed as marking one type of religious opinion, the craving for a theol- 
ogy which rested on some divine authority, or revelation from the world 
invisible, (Cfr. Augustin's criticism on him in Be Civ. Dei. x. ch. 9, 11, 
26, 28); and hence he drew such a system from the real or pretended 
ansAvers of oracles, in his -Kepi rrjs £k Xoyioov <pi\oao<p(as, of which frag- 
ments exist in Eusebius and Augustin (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. v. '744). Heathens, 
it would seem, had consulted oracles on this very subject of Christianity ; 
and it is these, the genuineness of which may be doubted, that he uses. 
His aim seems to have been to support the existing religious system ; and 
for this purpose he favoured the alliance with the priestly system, and the 
institution of religious rites. See Neander Kirchengesch. i. 293. 

fll On this work, Kara. Xptartavwu, see Holsten. ( Vita Povphyr. c. x.), 
who quotes at length from the Fathers the principal passages in which al- 
lusion to it is made. 

• 4* 



58 LECTURE II. 

the grounds of the religion rather than its character; 
being in fact an assault on the Bible. The existence 
of such a line of argument, of which a trace was already 
observable in Celsus, is explained by the circumstance 
that the faith of Christendom was already fixed on the 
authority of the sacred books. The church had always 
acknowledged the authority of the Jewish scriptures ; 
and by the" middle or close of the second century at the 
latest, it had come to acknowledge explicitly the co- 
ordinate authority of a body of Christian literature, his- 
toric, and epistolary. 82 Hence, when once the idea of a 
rule of faith had grown common, the investigation of 
the contents of the scriptures became necessary on the 
part of heathen opponents. The growingly critical 
character of Porphyry's statements, though partly 
attributable to the literary culture of his mind, is a slight 
undesigned evidence corroborative of the authoritative 
nature already attributed to the scriptures in doctrine 
and truthfulness. Porphyry seems accordingly to have 
directed his critical powers to show such traces of mis- 
takes and incorrectness as might invalidate the idea of a 
supernatural origin for the Jewish and Christian scrip- 
tures, and shake confidence in their truth as an au- 
thority. 

The first book of his work 83 dragged to light some 
of the discrepancies, real or supposed, in scripture ; and 
the examination of the dispute between St. Peter and 
St. Paul was quoted as an instance of the admixture of 

e2 Omitting allusion to the references concerning the canon furnished 
in older works, e. g. of Cosin, Dupin, Jones, Lardner, Michaelis, some of 
which were written in reference to the controversy between the Romanists 
and Reformed, others between the Christians and freethinkers, we may at 
least name Moses Stuart's work on the Canon of the Old Testament, and 
Credner Zur Geschichte des Kanons with reference to the New; (the 
former is apologetic, the latter independent and slightly rationalistic, but 
full of learning;) and especially the work on the Canon of the New Tes- 
tament by Mr. B. F. Westcott (1855), and the article on Canon by him in 
Smith's Biblical Dictionary, where references to fuller literary materials 
are given. 

b3 Hieronymi Opera, (at the end of the Proem, of the Commentary on 
Galatians) vol. 4. part i. p. 223, Benedictine edition of Martianay, 1706; 
also Galat. ii. 11 (id. p. 244); also at the end of book xiv. (Isaiah liii.) 
vol. iii. p. 388 ; also Ep. 74 to Augustin (id. iv. part ii. 619, 622.) 



LECTURE H. 59 

human ingredients in the body of apostolic teaching. 
His third book w was directed to the subject of scripture 
interpretation, especially, with some inconsistency, 
against the allegorical or mystical tendency which at 
that time marked the whole church, and especially the 
Alexandrian fathers. The allegorical method coincided 
with, if it did not arise from, the oriental instinct of 
symbolism, the natural poetry of the human mind. 
But in the minds of Jews and Christians it had been 
sanctified by its use in the Hebrew religion, and had 
become associated with the apocryphal literature of the 
Jewish church. It is traceable to a more limited extent 
in the inspired writers of the New Testament, and in 
most of the fathers ; but in the school of Alexandria" 5 
it was adopted as a formal system of interpretation. It 
is this allegorical system which Porphyry attacked. 
He assaulted the writings of those who had fancifully 
allegorised the Old Testament in the pious desire of 
finding Christianity in every part of it, in spite of his- 
toric conditions ; and he hastily drew the inference, 
with something like the feeling of doubt which rash 
interpretations of prophecy are in danger of producing 
at this day, that no consistent sense can be put 
upon the Old Testament. His fourth book 86 was a 
criticism on the Mosaic history, and on Jewish antiqui- 
ties. But the most important books in his work were 
the twelfth 87 and thirteenth," 8 which were devoted to an 
examination of the prophecies of Daniel, in which he 

64 Eitseb. Eccl. Hist. vi. c. 19 (ed. Gaisford, p. 414) gives a long 
extract from Porphyry. Of the second book nothing is known. 

b5 On the school of Alexandria see H. E. F. Guericke Schola qvce 
Alex, floruit, 1825 (p. 51-81); Matter's Essai sur Vecole d'Alexandrie, 
1840; Neander's Kirchengesch. II. 908 seq. 1196 seq. On the allegorical 
method of interpretation adopted by Origen, see Huet's Orig&niana II. 
quaest. 13 (vol. i. 170); Conybeare's Bampton Lecture for 1824 (Lect. 
2-4) ; R. A. Vaughan's Essays and Remains (Essay I) ; and an article in . 
the North British Review, No. 46, August 1855. Also compare a note on 
. systems of interpretation in Lect. VI. 

86 Euseb. PrEcp. i. 9 ; x. 9 ; which passages merely express the hos- 
tility of Porphyry. 

B7 In Jerome's Proem, to Daniel are four passages. (See Works, 
vol. iii. p. 1073-4.) 

88 See Jerome. Comm. on Matt. xxiv. 15 (b. iv. vol. iv. p. 115). 



60 LECTUEE II. 

detected some of those peculiarities on which, modern 
criticism has employed itself, and arrived at the conclu- 
sions in reference to its date, revived by the English 
deist Collins in the last century, and by many German 
critics in the present. 

Tt is well known that half of the book of DanieP 9 is 
historic, half prophetic. Each of these parts is distin- 
guished from similar portions of the Old Testament by 
some peculiarities. Porphyry is not recorded as no- 
ticing any of those which belong to the historic part, 
unless we may conjecture, from his theory of the book 
being originally written in Greek, that he detected the 
presence of those Greek words in Xebuchadnezzars 
edicts, which many modern critics have contended 
could not be introduced into Chaldsea antecedently to 
the Macedonian conquest. 91 ' The peculiarity alleged to 
belong to the prophetical part is its apocalyptic tone. 

69 As early as the time of Spinoza, from whose work, the Theologicus 
Politicus, Collins may perhaps have indirectly derived hints ; doubts of the 
authenticity of parts were expressed; and the inquiry was pursued by 
Michaelis and Eichhorn : but the modern criticism on it dates especially 
from Bcrthold (1806), who impugned its authenticity. Bleek (1822), De 
Wctte, Von Lengcrke of Konigsberg (1835), Maurer (1838), more 
recently Hitzig (1850), and Lucke (1852), followed on the same side. The 
English theologian, Dr. Arnold, adopted the same view. The contrary 
opinion has been maintained by Hengstenberg (1831), Havernich (1832), 
Keil (1853); Delitzch (in Hcrzog's Encycl. 1854), Auberleri (1857), by 
Moses Stuart, and by Dr. S. Davidson (Introduction to the Old Testament, 
1856). Hengstenberg, Havernich, and Auberlcn arc translated. The first 
of these three is valuable, especially for the literary and exegetical ques- 
tions; the second as a controversial commentary; the third for tracing 
the organic unity of the book. 

u0 The importance attached to the occurrence of Creek words is much 
over-estimated. They can only be shown to be four, which occur in 
ch. iii. 5, V, 10; viz., DirPp Kiddpa, N22& aafx^vK-rj, !~P:Qr*lO (Tvpcpwia, 
'"^niCQ \pa\r-fjpiov ; all of which relate to musical instruments, not un- 
likely to be introduced by commerce, and which would naturally be called 
by their foreign names. Some of the writers named in a preceding note 
have examined incidentally the character of the Hebrew and Chaldee of 
Daniel, and consider that both are similar to those of works confessedly 
of the age of Daniel ; and that the Chaldee is separated by a chasm from 
that of the earliest Targums. Professor Pusey delivered a lecture on the 
subject in the university, containing the results of his own recent studies, 
in the summer of the present year, which will form one of a printed 
course of lectures on Daniel. See also an article by the Rev. J. M c Gill in 
the Journal of Sacred Literature, Jan, 1861. 



LECTURE II. 61 

It looks, it has been said, historical rather than prophet- 
ical. Definite events, and a chain of definite events, 
are predicted with the precision of historical narrative ; 91 
whereas most prophecy is a moral sermon, in which 
general moral predictions are given, with specific his- 
toric ones interspersed. Nor is this, which is shared in 
a less degree by occasional prophecies elsewhere, the 
only peculiarity alleged, bnt it is affirmed also that the 
definite character ceases at a particular period of the 
reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, 92 down to which the 
very campaigns of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynas- 
ties are noted, but subsequently to which the prophetic 
tone becomes more vague and indefinite. Hence the 
conjecture has beeu hazarded that it was written in the 
reign of Antiochus by a Palestinian Jew, who gathered 
up the traditions of Daniel's life, and wrote the recent 
history of his country in eloquent language, in an 
apocalyptic form ; which, after the literary fashion of 
his age, he imputed to an ancient seer, Daniel ; definite 
up to the period at which he composed it, indefinite as 
he gazed on the future. (16) It was this peculiarity, 
the supposed ceasing of the prophecies in the book of 
Daniel at a definite date, which was noticed by Por- 
phyry, and led him to suggest the theory of its author- 
ship just named. 93 These remarks will give an idea of 
the critical acuteness of Porphyry. His. objections are 
not, it will be observed, founded on quibbles like those 
of Oelsus, but on instructive literary characteristics, 
many of which are greatly exaggerated or grossly mis- 
interpreted, but still are real, and suggest difficulties or 
inquiries which the best modern theological critics have 
honourably felt to demand candid examination and ex- 
planation. 94 

91 E. g. the wars of the kings of the north and of the south, c. xi. 
02 Viz., till about B.C. 161. 

93 He seems also to have entered into some examination of the specific 
prophecies; for he objects to the application of the words "the abomina 
tion of desolation " to other objects than that which he considers its ori- 
ginal meaning. See Hieronym. on Matt. xxiv. 15, the reference to which 
is given in a preceding note. 

94 A few other traces of Porphyry's views remain, which are of less 



62 LECTURE II. 

A period of about thirty years brings us to the date 
of the Diocletian persecution, A. D. 303 ; during the 
progress of which another noted attack was made. It 
was by ilierocles, then president of Bithynia, and 
afterwards prsefect of Alexandria, himself one of the 
instigators of the persecution and an agent in effecting 
it. 95 His line of argument was more specific than those 
previously named, being directed against the evidence 
which was derived by Christians for the truth of their 
religion from the character and miraculous works of 
Christ ; and his aim accordingly was to develope the 
character of Apollonius of Tyana, 96 as a rival to our Sa- 
viour in piety and miraculous power. 

Apollonius was a Pythagorean philosopher, born in 
Cappadocia about four years before the Christian era. 
After being early educated in the circle of philosophy, 
and in the practice of the ascetic discipline of his pre- 
decessor Pythagoras, he imitated that philosopher in 
spending the next portion of his life in travel. At- 

importance, and are levelled against parts of the New Testament : e. g. 
the change of purpose in our blessed Lord (John vii.), [Hieronym. vol. 
iv. part ii. p. 521 {Dial. adv. Pelag.); Ep. (101) ad Pammach. Several 
are given in Holsten. ( Vit. Porphyr. p. 86)], the reasons why the Old 
Testament was abrogated if divine, [Augustin. Epist. (102, olim 49, 
Benedict, ed. 1689) vol. ii. p. 2*74, where six questions are named, some 
of which come from Porphyry :] the question what became of the gene- 
rations which lived before Christianity was proclaimed, if Christianity was 
the only way of salvation ; objections to the severity of St. Peter in the 
death of Ananias; and the inscrutable mystery of an infinite punishment 
in requital for finite sin. (Aug. Retract, b. ii. c. 31. vol. i. p. 63, concern- 
ing Matt. vii. 2.) 

,J5 Hierocles' work was called A6yoi (piXa^eeis npbs robs Xpicrnavovs. 
Our knowledge of it depends upon the refutation which Eusebius wrote of 
it ; and upon passages in Lactantius (Instit. v. 2, and De Mort. Pcrsecut. 
16.) Concerning Ilierocles see Bayle's Dictionary, sub voc> (notes); 
Fabric. JBibl. Gr. i. '792. note; Cave's Hist. Lit. i. 131. ii. 99; Lardner's 
Works, vol. viii. ch. 39. § 1-4, and Neander's Kirchengesch. i. 296. 

06 On Apollonius of Tyana, see Lardner's Works, vol. viii. ch. 39. 
§ 5, 6. Ritter's History of Philosophy (vol. iv. b. xii. ch. 7), and espe- 
cially the monograph by C. Baur of Tiibingen, Apollonius von Tyana und 
Christus oder das Verhacltniss des Pythagoreismus zum Christen thum 
(1832) ; also the Abbe Houtteville's Essay affixed to the Discourse on the 
Method of the Principal Authors for and against Christianity, translated 
1739; and the article Apollonius by Professor Jowett in Smith's Bio- 
graphical Dictionary. 



LECTURE II. 63 

traded by his mysticism to the farthest East as the 
source of knowledge, he set out for Persia and India ; 
and in Mneveh on his route met Damis, the future 
chronicler of his actions. Returning from the East in- 
structed in Brahminic lore, he travelled over the Roman 
world. The remainder of his days was spent in Asia 
Minor. Statues and temples were erected to his hon- 
our. He obtained vast influence, and died with the 
reputation of sanctity late in the century. Such is the 
outline of his life, if we omit the numerous legends and 
prodigies which attach themselves to his name. He 
was partly a philosopher, partly a magician ; half mys- 
tic, half impostor. 97 At the distance of a century and a 
quarter from his death, in the reign of Septimius Seve- 
rus, at the request of the wife of that emperor, the sec- 
ond of the three Philostrati dressed up Damis's narra- 
tive of his life, in a work still remaining, and paved a 
way for the general reception of the story among the 
cultivated classes of Rome and Greece. 9 " It has been 
thought that Philostratus had a polemical aim against 
the Christian faith, 99 as the memoir of Apollonius is in 
so many points a parody on the life of Christ. The an- 
nunciation of his birth to his mother, the chorus of 
swans which sang for joy on occasion of it, the casting 
out devils, the raising the dead, the healing the sick, 
the sudden disappearance and reappearance of Apol- 
lonius, the sacred voice which called him at his death, 
and his claim to be a teacher with authority to reform 
the world, form some of the points of similarity. 

If such was the intention of Philostratus, he was 

97 He was probably midway between Pythagoras and the Alexander 
named by Lucian. 

98 It was written about A.D. 210, at the request of Julia Domna, and 
is entitled t& es rbv Tvavia 'AttoXAcvviov. On this life by Fhilosti atus see 
Fabric. Bill. Gr. v. 541 ; the above-named works of Houtteville and 
Baur; Donaldson's Gr. Lit. ch. lii. § 7; Pressense ii. 144 seq. ; and a 
recent translation of Philostratus with remarks by A. Chassaug, "Le Mar- 
veillcux dans l'Antiquite" (1862), 

99 Lardner and Putter think that Philostratus did not write with a 
polemical reference to Christianity, but Baur concludes otherwise. Dean 
Trench has made a few remarks in reference to this question {Notes to 
Miracles, p. 62). 



64: LECTURE II. 

really a controversialist under the form of a writer of 
romance ; employed by those who at that time were 
labouring (as already named) to introduce an eclecticism 
largely borrowed from the East into the region both of 
'philosophy and religion. Without settling this ques- 
tion, it is at least certain that about the beginning of 
the next century the heathen writers adopted this line 
of argument, and sought to exhibit a rival ideal. 1 One 
instance is the life of Pythagoras by Iamblichus ; an- 
other that which Hierocles wrote, in part of which he 
used Philostratus's untrustworthy memoir for the pur- 
pose of instituting a comparison between Apollonius 
and Christ. The sceptic who referred religious phe- 
nomena to fanaticism would hence avail himself of the 
comparison as a satisfactory account of the origin of 
Christianity ; while others would adopt the same view 
as Hierocles; and deprive the Christian miracles of the 
force of evidence, — a line of argument which was repro- 
duced by an English deist 2 who translated the work of 
Philostratus at the end of the seventeenth century. 
The work of Hierocles is lost, but an outline of its argu- 
ment, with extracts, remains in a reply which Eusebius 
wrote to a portion of it (17). Though couched in a 
seeming spirit of fairness, the tone was such as would 
be expected from one who ungenerously availed him- 
self of the very moment of a cruel persecution as the 
occasion of this literary attack. 

But the time of the church's sorrow was nearly past. 
The hour of deliverance was at hand. The emperor 
Const antine proclaimed toleration, 3 and subsequently 
established Christianity as the state-religion. Only one 
moment more of peril was permitted to befall it. 

After an interval in which Christian emperors 
reigned, Julian ascended the throne, and employed his 
short reign of two years 4 in trying to restore heathen- 

1 On Iamblichus's Life of Pythagoras, see Fabricius's Bibl. Gr. v. 764 ; 
Lardner viii. 39. § 7, who however concludes in this case, as in that of 
Philostratus, that the book was not designed against Christianity. 

2 Charles Blount in 1680. See Lect. IV. 

3 A.D. 313. * A.I). 361-3. 



lecture n. 65 

ism ; and during the last winter of his life, while halt- 
ing at Antioch in the course of his Eastern war, wrote 
an elaborate work against Christianity. 5 The book 
itself has been destroyed, but the reply remains which 
Cyril of Alexandria thought it necessary to write more 
than half a century afterwards ; and by this means we 
can gather Julian's opinions, just as from his own letters 
and the contemporary history we can gather his plans. 
The material struggle of deeds belongs in this instance 
to our subject, inasmuch as it is the overt expression of 
the struggle of ideas. 

Julian, as already observed, differed from previous 
opponents of Christianity, in having been educated a 
Christian. 6 Associating when a student at the schools 
of Athens with Gregory of Nazianzum and Basil, he 
had every opportunity for understanding the Christian 
religion and measuring its claims. The first cause of 
his apostasy from it remains uncertain. One tradition 
states that the shock to his creed arose from some early 
injury received through the fraud of a professing Chris- 
tian. Something is probably due to exasperation at the 
severity endured from Constantius ; and perhaps still 
more is due to the natural peculiarity of his character. 
He was swayed by the imagination rather than the rea- 
son, and was kindled with an enthusiastic admiration of 
the old heathen literature and the historic glories of the 
heathen world. His very style exhibits traces of imita- 
tion of the old models after wdiich he formed himself. 7 
With a spirit which the Italian w r riters of the Eenais- 

5 Kara XpKXTiavwv. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vii. 738 ; Lardner viii. 46. 
§ 2, and 4 ; Donaldson iii. 303. Fragments of it are preserved in Cyril's 
reply. The Marquis d'Argens, at the court of Frederick the Great of 
Prussia, translated and tried to unite them. Difcnse du Paganisme par 
VEmp'ereur Julian, 1*764. 

6 On the life and reign of Julian, see Gibbon (Decline and Fall, 
c. 22-24); Fabricii Lux Evangclii, 1721, c. 14, where the edicts which 
refer to Christianity are collected; Lardner viii. 46; Abbe de la Bletterie's 
Vie. de Julien; Neander, Kirchcngesch iii. 76. and 188, who also wrote in 
1812 a monograph on the subject; Wiggers in Illgen's Hist. Zeitschr. 
1837; Milman's Hist, of Cltristia.nity iii. 6. On Julian's works see 
Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vi. '719 seq. ; Donaldson iii. 57. § 6. 

7 Wyttenbach Opusc. i. 6 ; Donaldson iii. p. 3-07. 



66 LECTUKE n. 

sance enable us to understand, his sympathies clung 
round heathens until they entwined in their embrace 
heathenism itself. To a mind of this natural bias suffi- 
cient grounds unhappily would easily be found to pro- 
duce aversion to Christianity, in the quarrels among 
sections of the church, and in the ambition and incon- 
sistency of the numbers of nominal converts who em- 
braced the religion when its public establishment had 
rendered it their interest to do so ; and prejudice would 
add arguments for rejecting it. 

Accordingly he devoted his short reign to restore 
the ancient heathenism. Like Constantine, having ar- 
rived at the throne through a troublous war, he found 
the religion of the state opposed to his own convictions, 
and determined to substitute that which he himself pro- 
fessed. The difference however was great. The re- 
ligion of Constantine was young and progressive ; that 
of Julian was effete. It is in this respect that Julian 
has been compared, 8 in his character and acts, to those 
who in modern times, both in literature and in politics, 
have devoted their lives to roll back the progress of 
public opinion, and reproduce the spirit of the past by 
giving new life to the relics of bygone ages. If Julian 
had succeeded in his attempt, the victory could not have 
been permanent. 

The steps by which he strove to carry out his views 
were not unlike those of Constantine. 9 He first pro- 
claimed the establishment of the emperor's religion as 
the religion of the state, permitting toleration for all 
others. He next transferred the Christian endowments 
to heathens, acting on the principle previously estab- 
lished by Constantine. But beyond this point he pro- 
ceeded to measures which had the nature of persecution. 
He declared the Christian laity disqualified for office in 
the state, — a measure which could only be sophistically 
maintained on the plea of self-defence ; and, afraid of 

8 By Strauss, Dcr Romantikcr avf dem Tlirone des Cacsarcii odcr 
Julian dcr abtruennige 1847. 

9 There are some good remarks on Julian in Waddington's Church 
History, ch. viii. 



lectuee n. 67 

tlie engine of education, forbade Christian professors to 
lecture in the public schools of science and literature : 
and probably he at last imposed a tax on those who did 
not perform sacrifice. At the same time he saw the ne- 
cessity of a total reformation in paganism, if it was to 
revive as the rival of Christianity ; and planned, as 
Pontifex Maximus, a scheme for effecting it, which in- 
volved the concealment of the absurdity of its origin by 
allegorical interpretation, together with the establish- 
ment of a discipline and organisation similar to the 
Christian, and special attention on the part of the 
priesthood to morality and to public works of mercy. 10 
His bitter contempt for Christianity manifested itself in 
a public edict, which commanded that Christians should 
be denominated by the opprobrious epithet " Galilse- 
ans ; " and in some of his extant letters 11 he evinces a 
bitterness against it which finds its parallel in Yoltaire 
and Shelley. 

A work remains, the Philopatris, (18) usually falsely 
assigned to Lucian, but which internal evidence proves 
to belong to the reign of Julian, in which the unknown 
author, imitating the manner but wanting the power of 
Lucian, holds up to ridicule the sermons and teaching 
of some Christian preachers. This work probably con- 
veys the creed of the imperial party, which is simply 
Deism. This however is not the only source for ascer- 
taining the creed of Julian, and the nature of his objec- 
tions to Christianity. In his letters, and in the reply 
of Cyril to his now lost work, we possess more exact 
means for determining his position and sentiments. (19) 

He omitted, as we might expect, the grosser and 
more frivolous charges against Christianity which had 

}0 lie also made the well-known attempt to rebuild the temple of Je- 
rusalem. On the alleged miracle which prevented the execution of the 
scheme, see Warburton's works, vol. iv., Lardner, vol. viii. ch. 46. § 3, and 
Milman's note to Gibbon (c. 23.) Warburton believes the miracle ; but 
Lardner hesitates. The original passages which refer to it are Amm. 
Marcell. xxiii. ch. 1 ; Ambr. Ep. xi. 2 ; Chrysost. adv. Jud. et Gent. ', 
Greg. ISTaz. Oral. 4. adv. Jul. 

11 E. g. Ep. to Ecdidius (Ep. 9, Spanheim's edition, 1696) ; Decree to 
the Alexandrians (Ep. 26, 51) ; Ep. to Arsacius (49). 



68 LECTUBE II. 

been formerly expressed by those who were ignorant of 
its real character. Indeed he seems to haye been will- 
ing to recognise it as one form of religion, bnt declined 
to admit its monopoly of claim to be regarded as the 
only true form. Though himself a Theist, 12 — his view 
of Deity being more simply monotheistic than that of 
his predecessors, derived furtively from the" Hebrew 
idea transmitted through Christianity ; he nevertheless 
considered that discrepancy of national character re- 
quired corresponding differences in religion. 13 In his 
work he seems to have repeated some of the objections 
of the older assailants, Celsus aud Porphyry ; attacking 
the credibility of scripture and of the Christian scheme 
in its doctrines and evidences. He offered in it a criti- 
cism on primaeval and Hebrew history ; 14 attacking the 
probability of many portions of the book of Genesis ; 15 
objecting to the Hebrew view of Deity as too appro- 
priating in its character, and as making the divine 
Being appear cruel. 10 He denied the originality of the 
Hebrew moral law, 17 and pointed out the supposed de- 
fectiveness of the Hebrew polity ; comparing unfavour- 
ably the type of the Hebrew lawgiver as seen in Moses, 
and of the king as seen in David, with the great heroes 
of Greek history. 18 The Hebrew prophecy he tried to 
weaken by putting it in comparison with oracles. In 
estimating the character of Christ, he depreciated the 
importance of his miracles ; 10 and noticing the different 
tone of the fourth Gospel from those of the Synoptists, 
he asserted that it was St. John who first taught Christ's 
divinity. 20 He regarded Christianity as composed of 
borrowed ingredients ; considered it to have assumed 
its shape gradually ; and regarded its progress to have 
been unforeseen by its founder and by St. Paul ; 21 at- 
tacked its relation to Judaism in superseding it whilo 
depending on it ; 22 regarded proselytism as absurd ; 
and directed some few charges, which may have been 



12 Cyril, adv. Jul. B. iii. and iv. 


13 B. iv. 


» B. ii. 


15 B. iii. 


10 B. iii. 


17 B. v. 


18 B. v. and vii. 


]9 B. vi. 


2U B. x. 


21 B. vii. and x. 


22 B. viii. 





LECTUBE II. 69 

more deserved, against practices of liis day, such as 
Staurolatry 23 and Marty rolatry. 24 

With the death of Julian the hopes of heathenism 
departed ; and two eloquent orations of Gregory JSTa- 
zianzen 25 still convey to us the Christian words of tri- 
umph. Christianity progressed, protected by the favour 
of the sovereigns. Heathenism no longer expressed 
itself in free examination of Christianity, and lingered 
only in the prejudices of the people. In the West it is 
merely seen as it pleads for toleration, 26 or makes itself 
heard in the murmurs which attributed the woes of the 
Teutonic invasions to the displeasure of the heathen 
gods at the neglect of their worship. 27 In the East it 
disappears altogether. Doubt there expires, because 
speculation ceases and Christian thought becomes fixed ; 
nor will it be necessary in future to recur to the history 
of the eastern church. 

In this survey we have tried to understand the ob- 
jections alleged by unbelievers during the first four cen- 
turies, successively changing in character, from the ca- 
lumnies of ignorance in the second century, to the state- 
ments of intelligent disbelief in the third and fourth, 
until they finally subside in the fifth into the murmuring 
of popular superstition ; and have endeavoured to give 
their natural as well as literary history, by exhibiting 
them as corollaries from the various views concerning 
religion enumerated at the commencement of the lec- 
ture. The blind prejudices of the uneducated populace, 
and the attachment, merely political, to heathen creeds, 
manifested themselves in deeds rather than words ; but 
each of the other lines of thought there indicated crave 

23 B. vi. 24 B. x. 

25 Greg. Naz. Op. i. Orat. 4 and 5. 

20 Q. Aurelius Symmachus was deputed by the senate to remonstrate 
with Gratian on the removal of the altar of Victory (A.D. 382) from the 
council hall ; and afterwards, when appointed (384) praefect of the city, 
he addressed a letter to Valentinian requiring the restoration of the pagan 
deities to their former honours. Both Symmachus's address and St. Am- 
brose's refutation are given in Cave's Lives of Fathers (Life of Ambrose, 
§ 3. p. 5T6.) 

27 Augustin refutes this objection in several places of the first five 
books in the Be Civ. Dei. 



70 LECTURE II. 

expression in literature to its opinion concerning Chris- 
tianity ; the flippant impiety of Epicureanism in Lucian, 
the debased form then prevalent of Platonism in Celsus, 
the snbtle and mystic philosophy of the neo-Platonists 
in Porphyry, the oriental Theosophy in Hierocles, the 
romantic attachment to the old pagan literature in 
Julian. 

If these causes be still further classified for compari- 
son with the enumeration of intellectual causes stated 
in the previous lecture, we find only the adumbration 
of some of the forms there named. The attack from 
physical science, so prevalent since the era of modern 
discovery, is barely discernible in the passing remarks 
on the Mosaic cosmogony in Celsus and Julian. 28 The 
attack from criticism is seen in a trifling form in Celsus ; 
in a superior manner in the perception which Porphyry 
exhibits of the literary characteristics of the Old Testa- 
ment, and Julian of the New. The chief ground of the 
attack was derived from metaphysical science, which 
acted not so much in its modern form of a subjective 
inquiry into the tests of truth, as in the shape of rival 
doctrines concerning the highest problems of life and 
being, which preoccupied the mind against Christianity. 
If the eclectic attempts to adjust such speculations to 
Christianity which marked the progress of Gnosticism 
could have been embraced in our inquiry, the force of 
this class of causes would ha ye been made still more 
apparent. 

The obvious insufficiency however of this analysis to 
afford an entire explanation of the prejudices of these 
early unbelievers points to the close union before no- 
ticed 29 of the emotional with the intellectual causes. 
While asserting the possibility of the independent action 
of the intellectual element under peculiar circumstances 
as a cause of doubt, and while thus vindicating the im- 

28 The work of Cosmas Indicopleustcs in the middle of the sixth cen- 
tury is designed to show the falsehood of the Ptolemaic system of astron- 
omy in assuming the world to be a sphere, and proves the continuance of 
speculation on the harmony of science and revelation. See Donaldson's 
(Jr. Lit. III. 59. § 3. 

2U P. 14—17. 



LECTUEE II. 71 

portance of investigating the history of free thought from 
the intellectual side, we admitted the necessity of taking 
the probability of the action of the moral element into 
account when we pass from the abstract study of ten- 
dencies to form a judgment on concrete instances. 
Here accordingly, in the mental history of these early 
unbelievers, we already encounter cases where philoso- 
phy as well as piety requires that a very large share in 
the final product be referred to the influence of emo- 
tional causes. Christianity addresses itself to the com- 
pound human nature, to the intellect and heart con- 
joined. Accordingly the excitement of certain forms of 
moral sensibility is as much presupposed in religion as 
the sense of colour in beholding a landscape. The 
means fail for estimating with historic certainty the 
particular emotional causes which operated in the in- 
stances now under consideration. The moral chasm 
which separates us from heathens is so great that we 
can hardly realize their feelings. 

If however we cannot pronounce on the positive 
presence of moral causes which produced their disbelief, 
we may conjecture negatively the nature of those, the 
absence of which precluded the possibility of faith. 
Christianity demands a belief in the supernatural, and 
a serious spirit in the investigation of religion, both of 
which were wholly lacking in Lucian. It requires a 
deep consciousness of guilt and of the personality of 
God, which were wanting in Celsus. It exacts a more 
delicate moral taste to appreciate the divine ideal of 
Christ's character than Hierocles manifested. Porphyry 
and Julian are more difficult cases for moral analysis. 
Porphyry is so earnest a character, so spiritual in his 
tastes, that we wonder why he was not a Christian ; 
and except by the reference of his conduct to general 
causes, such as philosophical pride, we cannot under- 
stand his motives without a more intimate knowledge 
than is now obtainable of his personal history. The 

30 This appeal's from a letter of Porphyry to his wife Marcella, discover- 
ed by Angelo Mai, and edited at Milan, 1816, in which his personal religious 
aspirations are seen. 



72 LECTUEE II. 

difficulty of understanding Julian's character arises 
from its very complexity. Who can divine the many 
motives which must have combined with intellectual 
causes at successive moments of his life, to change the 
Christian student into the apostate, to convert disbelief 
into hatred, and to degrade the philosopher into the 
persecutor ? History happily offers so few parallels 
to enable ns to form a conjecture on the answer, that 
we may be content to leave the problem unsolved. 

We have now summed np the causes which operated 
in the first great intellectual struggle in which Chris- 
tianity was engaged. No means exist for estimating 
the amount of harm done by the writings of unbelievers. 
The retributive destruction of some of them and the in- 
dignant alarm of the Christian apologists indicate the 
probability that these works had excited attention. 
But under a merciful Providence truth has in the end 
gained rather than lost by this first conflict of reason 
against Christianity. The church encountered the un- 
believers by apologetic treatises, and met the Gnostics 
by dogmatic decisions. The truths brought out by the 
action and reaction, and embodied in the literature 
stimulated by Gnosticism, in the apologies created by 
unbelief, and in the creeds suggested as a protest against 
heresy, are the permanent result which the struggle has 
contributed to the world. 

The contest however is not quite obsolete, and has a 
practical as well as antiquarian interest. Though the 
analogy to the attacks of ancient unbelievers must be 
sought in pagan countries in the objections of modern 
heathens, yet some resemblance to them may be found 
in the unbelief of Christian lands. Such parallels are 
frequently hasty generalizations founded on a superficial 
perception of agreement, without due recognition of the 
differences which more exact observation would bring 
to view ; for identity of cause as well as result is 
necessary in order to establish philosophical affinity. 
In the present cases however the agreement is moral if 
not intellectual, in spirit if not in form, generally also 
in condition if not in cause. The flippant wit of Lu- 



lecture n. 73 

cian, which attributes religion to imposture and craft, is 
repeated in the French criticism of the last century. 
Some of the doubts of Celsus reappear in the English 
deists. The delicate criticism of Porphyry is reproduced 
in the modern exegesis. The disposition to explain 
Christianity as a psychological phenomenon, as merely 
one form of the religious consciousness, an organic pro- 
duct of human thought, unsuited for men of superior 
knowledge, who can attain to the philosophical truth 
which underlies it, is the modern parallel to Julian. 

Accordingly the conduct of the early church during 
this struggle has a living lesson of instruction for the 
church in Christian lands, as well as in its missionary 
operations to the heathen. The victory of the early 
church was not due wholly to intellectual remedies, such 
as the answers of apologists, but mainly to moral ; to 
the inward perception generated of the adaptation of 
Christianity to supply the spiritual wants of human na- 
ture. 31 As the heathen realized the sense of sin, they 
felt intuitively the suitability of salvation through 
Christ ; as they witnessed the transforming power of 
belief in Him, they felt the inward testimony to the 
truth of Christianity. The external evidence of religion 
had its office in the early church, though the belief 32 in 
magic and in oracles probably prevented the full per- 
ception of the demonstrative force due to the two forms 
of external evidence, miracles and prophecy. But the 
internal evidences, — Christ, Christianity, Christendom, 

31 See this discussed towards the close of Lect. YIIT. 

32 It is obvious that this belief blunted in some degree the force of 
arguments built upon miracles and prophecy : this circumstance explains 
the comparative absence of these arguments in the early apologies against 
the heathens. The reality however both of miracles and prophecy is 
always implied ; and occasionally the direct appeal to them is used. The 
apologists were thus compelled, even if no other reason founded deeper in 
the philosophy of evidence had inclined them to do so, to lay stress on 
what would now be called the argument from internal evidence for the 
truth of Christianity. The Hulsean Prize Essay for 1852, by Mr. W. J. 
Bolton, contains a useful account of the apologists, with extracts from their 
writings. And Mr. H. A. Woodham, in the preface to his edition of 
Tertullian's Apology (1843), has made some very suggestive remarks. 
Both writers show that the fathers use the argument from miracles more 
frequently than had generally been supposed. 

4 



74: LECTURE II. 

were the most potent proofs offered, — the doctrine of an 
atoning Messiah filling the heart's deepest longings, and 
the lives of Christians embodying heavenly virtues. 

The modern church may therefore take comfort, and 
may hope for victory. The weak things of the world 
confounded the strong, not only because the Holy 
Spirit granted the dew of his blessing, but because the 
scheme and message of reconciliation which the church 
was commissioned to announce, were of divine construc- 
tion. Each Christian who tries, however humbly, to 
spread the knowledge of Christ by word or by example 
is helping forward the Redeemer's kingdom. Let each 
one in Christ's strength do his duty, and he will leave 
the world better than he found it ; and in the present 
age, as in the times of old, Gnosticism and heathenism 
will retire before Christianity ; the false will be dissi- 
pated, the good be absorbed, by the beams of the Sun 
of righteousness. 



LECTURE IIT 



TIMES. 



Luke xxi. 33. 
Heaven and earth shall pass away ; but my words shall not pass away. 

WE have studied the history of unbelief down to the 
fall of heathenism. A period of more than seven 
hundred years elapses before a secoud crisis of doubt 
occurs in church history. The interval was a time of 
social dissolution and reconstruction ; aud when the 
traces of the free criticism of religion reappear, the 
world in which they manifest themselves is new. Fresh 
races have been introduced, institutions unknown to the 
ancient civilization have been mingled with or have re- 
placed the old ; and the ancient language of the Roman 
empire has dissolved into the Romance tongues. But 
Christianity has lived through the deluge, and been the 
ark of refuge in the storm ; and its claims are now tested 
by the young world which emerged into being when 
the waters of confusion had retired. The silence of 
reason in this interval was not the result of the abun- 
dance of piety, but of the prevalence of ignorance ; a 
sign of the absence of inquiry, not of the presence of 
moral ancl mental satisfaction. 1 Even when speculation 

1 For the intellectual and social condition during this period, consult 
Guizot's History of Civilization in France ; Balkan's History of the Mid- 



76 LECTUKE III. 

revived, and reason re-examined religion, the literary 
monuments in which expression is given to doubt are so 
few, that it will be possible in the present lecture not 
only to include the account of the second and third 
crises which mark the course of free thought in church 
history, but even to pass beyond them, and watch the 
dawn of unbelieving criticism caused by the rise of the 
modern philosophy which ushers in the fourth of the 
great crises named in a previous lecture. 2 

The former of these periods which we shall now ex- 
amine, the second in the general scheme, may be con- 
sidered to extend from A. D. 1100 to 1400. Its com- 
mencement is fixed by the date at which the scholastic 
philosophy began to influence religion, its close by the 
revival of classical learning. The history of free thought 
in it is complicated, by being to some extent the strug- 
gle of deeds as well as of ideas, a social as well as a re- 
ligious struggle. It was the period which witnessed 
both the dissolution of feudalism and the theocratic cen- 
tralization in the popedom ; and while reason struggled 
on the one side against the dogmatic system, it struggled 
on the other to assert the rights of the state against the 
church, and to put restraints upon the privileges, do- 
minion, and wealth, of the pope and clergy. The social 
struggle, to vindicate the liberty of the state against the 
undue power of the church, so far as it is the effect of 
free thought, appertains to our subject, in the same 
manner as was the case with the early attempts of a 
converse character of the Roman emperors to deny due 
liberty to the church, whenever, as in the case of Julian, 
they were the result of a deliberate examination of re- 
ligion. Free thought in the middle ages is at once 
Protestantism, Scepticism, and Ghibellinism. 3 

die Ages, ch. ix. part i. ; and History of Literature, ch. i. Also three 
works by Laurent, Les Barbares et le Catholiclsme, La Papaute et V Em- 
pire, La Feodalite et VEglise. 

2 See Lect. I. p. 7. 

3 See Guizot's History of Civilization in Europe, ch. vi. and x. ; Lau- 
rent, La Reforme, 1861 (p. 131— 271.) The last named work, to which 
frequent reference will be made, is an able production by a Professor 
(probably a freethinker) in the university of Ghent. It is the eighth of a 



LECTURE III. 77 

The intellectual action in this crisis is marked by 
four forms ; — (1) the criticism created by the scholastic 
philosophy, which has been thought to mark in Abelard 
the commencement of doubt ; (2) the introduction of 
the idea of progress in religion, in the sense that Chris- 
tianity is to be replaced by a better religion ; (3) the 
idea of the comparison of Christianity with other re- 
ligions, so as to obliterate its exceptional character ; (4) 
the traces of disbelief in the doctrine of immortality. 
The two former are free thought as doubt, the two lat- 
ter as disbelief. 

It will be necessary, for illustrating the first of these 
forms, to explain the nature of the scholastic philoso- 
phy, so far as to show how it might become the means 
of producing heresy or scepticism, when applied to 
theology. 

Scholasticism is the vague name which describes the 
system of inquiry common in the middle ages. 4 In 
truth it marks a period rather than a system ; a method 
rather than a philosophy. In spite of difference of 
form, it links itself with the speculations of other ages 
in community of aim, in that it strove to gain a gener- 
al philosophy of the universe, to reach some few princi- 
ples which might offer an interpretation of all difficul- 
ties. 

In the present age the science which attempts this 
grand problem is denominated Logic, or Metaphysics, 
according to the different sphere which it covers. 5 But 

series of works, entitled, Etudes de VHistoire deVHitmanite, of which three 
were named in a previous note, and contains a careful examination (1) of 
the reform, religious and social, of the middle ages ; (2) of heterodoxy, 
both as free thought and incredulity, during the same period ; (3) of the 
Eenaissance ; (4) of the principles of the Reformation. 

4 It has been conjectured that the name was probably derived from the 
circumstance that it was the philosophy which arose in the various Scholce 
which Charlemagne established throughout his empire ; and afterwards was 
that which existed in the scholae or halls of the mediasval universities. 
Brucker has discussed the previous history of the word {History of Critical 
Philosophy, iii. 710; and Haureau, nearly repeating him, Philosophie 
Scholastique, i. 7, with a view to show how it was used before it became 
changed into the meaning just assigned to it). See also a few remarks by 
Saisset in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1850, vol. iii. p. G45. 

5 It is called logic, if we denote that part of it which studies the mode 



I 

78 lecture in. 

in the middle ages these two fields were not clearly dis- 
tinguished ; in the same manner as in the AidketcTiicri 
of Plato, method and the realities attained by method 
were not separated. 6 Yet it was mainly in reference 
to the former that scholasticism wears the aspect of a 
method, and to the latter the aspect of a philosophy. 
Adopting deduction as the type of a perfect science, it 
assumed its data partly on the ground of innate ideas, 
partly from the truths of revelation, partly from the 
metaphysical dicta of Aristotle ; and from these princi- 
ples attempted to work out deductively a solution of 
universal nature. It was the Hofa'a of Aristotle execu- 
ted from a Christian point of view. In respect to the 
logical method there was a general agreement of opin- 
ion, but difference of system arose in the metaphysical. 
The form that the problem of science then assumed was 
peculiar. Instead of examining the data from which 
deduction starts, with a view of finding their subjective 
certainty as thoughts, the inquirers strove to settle the 
problem of their objective nature as things. The ques- 
tion asked was this : Are the genera and species which 
the mind contemplates, in its attempts to classify and 
interpret phenomena, real in nature, or produced only 
by human thought and speech ? A comparison with 
the modern mode of investigation will explain the im- 
portance which the question possessed, and the reason 
why it monopolized the entire field of inquiry. 

The progress of discovery has forced upon us a sub- 
division of the sciences into two classes, unknown in 

of investigation, and the comparative value of evidence in the different 
fields of inquiry. It is the psychological branch of metaphysics, if it ex- 
plores the structure and functions of the mind, ascertaining the subjective 
validity of the data employed in the method which forms the subject 
matter of contemplation in logic. It is the ontological branch, if it reach- 
es to the still higher problem of searching for the traces of objective reality, 
independent of the act of human thought, which are involved in the data 
previously examined. 

c The AiaXeKTiK^ of Plato, it is well known, wa^, the method of analysis 
by means of language, and comprised the field which his successor Aristotle 
separated in two, viz. AiaAcKriK-fi, logic, the inquiry concerning method ; 
and 2o(/)fa, metaphysics, the inquiry concerning being. See Bp. Hampden's 
article Aristotle in the Encyclopa'dia Britannica ; Ritter, History of Philos- 
ophy (English translation), vol. ii. b. 8, c. 2 and 3 ; and vol. iii. c. 2. 



lecture in. 79 

tlie middle ages ; in one of which we discover canses ; 
in the other, in which we are unable to find causes, we 
rest content with classification by species and genera. 
In the former we discover antecedents, in the latter 
types. 7 But in mediaeval science, as in Greek, the lat- 
ter class was regarded as the sole form of all perfect 
science. Hence the reason will appear why the ques- 
tion as to the true nature of genera and species had a 
monopoly of the field of inquiry ; and also why the the- 
ory of predication was exalted into the most important 
part of logic. 8 Those who thought that genera had a 
real existence as essences apart from man's mind and 
from nature, were denominated Realists: those who 
denied to them any real existence, and considered them 
to be a common quality labelled by a common name, 
were Nominalists : those who held the intermediate 
view, and assumed them to exist, not only as artificial 
names but also as general classes in the human mind, 
were Conceptualists. With the realist, classification was 
not arbitrary, but true and determined for man. With 
the nominalist and conceptualist it was created by man, 
and amenable to correction. 

The question, though now relegated from metaphys- 
ical to physical science, has still sufficient importance to 
enable us to perceive likewise the reason why these dif- 
ferent theories could be the means of dividing men into 
parties. The bitterness with which a zoological inquiry 
of analogous character into the perpetuity of natural 
species 9 has been lately assailed may enable us to real- 
ize the earnestness shown on this point in the middle 
ages. The question, as viewed by the schoolmen, was 
really the fundamental one as respects 'knowledge ; and 

7 Viz. antecedents in the mechanical class of sciences, types in the 
zoological and botanical. The distinction is that which is indicated by Mill 
under the names of "uniformities of causation," and "uniformities of 
coexistence." See Mill's Zoqic, vol. i. b. i. ch. 7, § 4; vol. ii. b. iii. ch. 22 ; 
b. iv. ch. 7. Compare also Whewelfs Philosophy of the Inductive Scic?ices t 
vol. i. b. iii. c. 2. and b. viii. 

8 This is the explanation of the fact already quoted from Cousin, that 
the mediaeval philosophy depended on a quotation made by Boethius from 
Porphyry. 

Viz. Darwin's Inquiry into the Origin of Species, 1859. 



80 LECTURE III. 

the opinions on it are the counterpart to those which re- 
late to the tests of truth and the nature of being in mod- 
ern metaphysics. The spirit of realism was essentially 
the spirit of dogmatism, the disposition to pronounce 
that truth was already known. 10 Nominalism was es- 
sentially the spirit of progress, of inquiry, of criticism. 
Realism was in spirit deductive, starting from accepted 
dogmas : Nominalism was in spirit, though not in form, 
inductive. It tested classifications, and admitted op- 
portunities for the existence of doubt. " Believe that 
you may know," was the expression of the former : 
"Know that you may believe," that of the latter. 11 

The two theories were of universal application to 
every subject of thought. An illustration will explain 
their relation to theology. In the foolish and almost 
irreverent attempts to explain by philosophy the nature 
of the triune' existence of the divine Being, the realist 
assuming the reality of the one genus Deity, was pre- 
pared to allow identity of essence in the three species, 
the three members of the Divine Trinity. The nominal- 
ist, allowing only concrete existence, was obliged either 
to accept unity, only in a verbal sense, and be charged 
with tri theism, as Roscelin ; or diversity only in a ver- 
bal sense, and incur the charge of Sabellianism, as Abe- 
lard. 

Such was Scholasticism, and such its relation to 
philosophy and theology. 12 Existing for several cen- 
turies as an instinct, it became about the end of the 



10 Inasmuch as the realist assumed that the innate ideas of the mind 
gave a knowledge of real essences in nature. 

11 "Neque enim qusero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam," 
are the words of the realist Anselm (Proslog. I. p. 43. ed. Gerberon.) 
" Dubitando ad inquisitionem venimus ; inquirendo veritatem percipimus," 
are those of the nominalist Abelard. (Sicet Non, p. 16. ed. Cousin.) 

12 The best modern work on scholasticism is the Memoire Couronne, 
by B. Haureau, 2 vols. 1850, in which the various authors and schools of 
thought are fully treated. Among older sources, the following are import- 
ant; Brucker, iii. 709-868; Tenncmann's Manual, § 237-79; Ritter's 
Christliche Philosophic ; Bimle, Gcschichte der Neuern Philosophic, i. 
810 seq. ; Hampden's Bawpton Lectures (I. and II.), and the article by him 
on Aquinas in the Encyclopaedia Mclvopolitana ; also Maurice's Mcdiwval 
Philosophy. 



LECTURE III. 81 

eleventh century an intelligent movement. 13 At this 
period the problem was consciously proposed, and each 
of the three centuries which are comprised in our pre- 
sent period exhibits a different phase of the controversy. 
At first the movement was in favour of the nominal- 
ism in Roscelin and Abelard, and reason assumed an 
attitude of alleged scepticism : in the thirteenth century 
the victory was in the hands of intelligent realists like 
Aquinas, who used reason in favour of orthodoxy. In 
the fourteenth, nominalism revived in Occam ; the prov- 
inces of faith and philosophy were severed, and the 
final victory on the metaphysical question remained in 
the hands of the nominalists. 

The scientific position of Abelard will thus Le clear. 
We must now study his intellectual character, as em- 
bodying the sceptical aspect which belonged to nomi- 
nalism. 

Abelard's character is in many respects one of the 
most curious in history. 14 The record of his trials, bod- 
ily and mental, 15 enlists the romantic sympathy of the 
sentimentalist, and commands the serious attention of 
the philosopher. His wonderful reputation at Paris as 
a public lecturer connects him with the university life 
of the middle ages, and presents him as the type of the 
class of great professors created by the absence of boohs 
and consequent prevalence of oral instruction. It was 
his vast influence which made his opinions of impor- 
tance, and aroused the opposition of St. Bernard. It 
seems to have been the application of the nominalist 
philosophy to the doctrine of the Trinity, contained in 
Abelard's works on dogmatic theology, 10 which excited 

13 Cfr. Tennemann's Manual of Philosophy, § 243. 

14 On Abelard's personal character, see Guizot's Lettrcs oV Abelard, 
1839; and Kemusat's Abelard, 1845, vol. i. part x., the latter of which 
writers has long studied his life, philosophy, and theology ; also Taillan- 
dier's article La Libre pensee du moyen age (Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 
1861) ; Tennemann's Gesch. der Phil. viii. 170 seq. ; Tennemann's Manual, 
§ 251. 

15 In his work Liber Calamitatum. 

1G In his Introductio ad TJieologiam, and Theologia Christiana. See 
Neander's Eirchengeschichte, viii. 505 seq. 

4* 



82 lectuke in. 

alarm. The council called at Sens 17 was a theological 
duel, wherein th#se two distinguished characters were 
matched, the most eloquent theologian and preacher 
against the most influential professor and philosopher ; 
the saint against the critic. Bernard was right in his 
Theology ; Abelard perhaps right in his philosophy. 1 
This event however presents the effects of scholasticism 
in producing heresy rather than scepticism. 

The great work which has laid Abelard open to the 
latter charge merits a brief notice. It was entitled the 
SLo et JVon, and remained unpublished in the public 
documents of France till recent years. 19 It is a collec- 
tion of alleged contradictions, which exist on a series of 
topics, which range over the deepest problems of theol- 
ogy, and descend to the confines of casuistry in ethics. 20 
In the discussion of them Abelard collects passages 
from the scriptures and from the fathers in favour of 
two distinctly opposite solutions. He has however pre- 
fixed a prologue to the work, which ought to be taken 
as the explanation of his object. 21 He insists in it on 
the difficulty of rightly understanding the scriptures or 
the fathers, and refers it to eight different causes ; 22 ad- 

17 In a. D. 1121. 

J8 The nature of this contest is given in Mabillon's edition of Bernard 
(Prmf. § 5), and the characters of the two disputants are sketched in Sir 
J. Stephens's Lectures on the History of France, ii. (163-207); also in 
Neander's Kirchengesch., vol. viii. p. 533 seq. 

19 It was published by Cousin in 1836, with an elaborate preface relat- 
ing to the literary history of Abclard's works and opinions, as well as the 
character of the scholastic philosophy generally. An edition of the text, 
including the passages not printed by Cousin, has subsequently been pub- 
lished by Henke and Lindenkohl, (Marburg, 1851.) See also Neander's 
Kirchengesch., viii. p. 523 seq. 

2t) The following are examples of the questions proposed: No. (5.^ Quod 
non sit Deus singularis ct contra; (6) Quod sit Deus tripartitus et contra; 
(14) Quod sit filius sine principio et contra; (18) Quod rcterna genei-atio 
iilii narrari vel sciri vel intelligi possit et non; (28) Quod nihil fiat casu et 
contra; (30) Quod peccata etiam placeant Deo et non ; (38) Quod omnia 
sciat Deus et non ; (121) Quod liceat habere concubinam et contra; (153) 
Quod nulla de causa mentiri liceat et contra; (156) Quod liceat hominem 
occidere et non. 

21 Abelard's Preface is analysed and discussed in Cousin, p. 191 seq., 
and Stephens, vol. ii. p. 169. 

22 Viz. (1) the peculiarities of their style; (2) their use of popular 
language on scientific questions ; (3) the corruption of the text ; (4) the 



LECTITEE ni. 83 

vising that when these considerations fail to explain the 
apparent contradictions of scripture, we should abandon 
the manuscripts as inaccurate, rather than believe in 
the existence of real discrepancies. He draws also a 
broad distinction between canonical scripture and 
other literature, strongly affirming the authority of the 
former. 

Is this work sceptical ? Is it designed under a fair 
show to serve the purpose of unbelief ? Or is it merely 
an instance of the awakening of the spirit of inquiry, 
the free criticism exercised by nominalism, the desire 
to prove all dogmas by reason ? In other words, was 
the freethinking of Abelard rationalism, or was it mere- 
ly Protestantism and theological criticism ? 

These questions have met with different answers. 
The Benedictine editors, viewing his condemnation by 
St. Bernard as parallel to that of the biblical critic R. 
Simon 23 by Bossuet, declined to publish the manuscript 
of his work. 24 More recent inquirers, especially the 
philosophical critic Cousin, have regarded Abelard with 
a favourable eye. They consider his treatises merely to 
.be a provisional scepticism, fortifying the mind against 
premature solutions. Some would even claim him as 
an early protestant, as the first of the line of men whose 
spirits, while fretting under the dogmatic teaching or 
the political centralization of the "Western church, have 
unhesitatingly bowed before the authority of scripture. 25 

number of spurious books ; (5) the retraction by the fathers of their own 
previous statements ; (6) their careless use of profane learning; (7) the 
describing things as the j. appear, not as they are ; (8) their ambiguous use 
of words. 

23 K. Simon had published a work, Histoire Critique du Vieux Testa- 
ment, 1678, in which positions were stated which were new at that time, 
but which, as Hallam observes, (Hist, of Lit. iii. 299,) " now pass without 
reproof." The history of the controversy connected with Simon is contain- 
ed in Walch's Bibliotheca Tlieologica Selecta, 1765, vol. iv. (251-9.) See 
also Bp. Marsh's Lectures, part i. p. 52. 

24 See Martene et Durant in T/iesaur. Nov. Anecdot. (1717) vol. v, 
Pref. p. 3. 

25 Cousin thinks him a sceptic. So also Sir J. Stephens, ii. 170. Tail- 
landier (Rev. des Deux Mondes quoted above) takes the view given in the 
text, that his character was complex. See also Laurent's La Reformc, pp. 
318-331. 



84: LECTURE III. 

Possibly these several views contain elements of truth. 
Abelard's character was complex, and the purpose of 
his book equally so. He embodied a movement, and 
experience had not yet taught men to distinguish in it 
the boundaries which separated the provinces of free 
thought. The argument in favour of scepticism drawn 
from the form of his work seems unfair. The statement 
of a series of paradoxes is lawful, if a solution of them 
be offered, or an explanation of the reason why a solu- 
tion is impossible. The disputative, dialectical tone 
which assists in the work was the ordinary mode of in- 
struction in the mediaeval universities, and finds a par- 
allel in the method of thought observable in other ages. 
Abelard's statement of paradoxes, of an unsolved mass 
of contradictions, recalls, for example, the early para- 
doxes on motion which Zeno presented for the purpose 
of compelling acquiescence in the Eleatic teaching, 26 or 
the series of antinomies which Kant has given, as prob- 
lems insoluble theoretically, but capable of harmony 
when viewed on the moral side. 27 In truth it is the 
mark, either, as in one of these cases, of the first awak- 
ening of the mind to curiosity ; or, as in the other, of 
the last limit at which curiosity is compelled to pause. 
Abelard's method is like that which is observable in 
Socrates, and in those early dialogues of his disciple 
Plato, in which the pupil is working in his master's 
manner, wherein difficulties are propounded without be- 
ing solved. The hearer is cross-questioned, with the 
view of being made to feel the necessity of possessing 
knowledge ; and a method is offered to him by which 
he is to find the solution of problem's for himself. 28 In 
this view Abelard's doubt is really the inquiry which 
is the first step to faith ; the criticism which precedes 
the constructive process, the negation before affirmation. 
While its form may be regarded as an embodiment 

26 See Preller's Hist. Phil. Or. Royi. xxxviii. § 158. Bayle's Diction- 
ary, art. Zeno (vol. iv. edition 5, p. 539 note). 

27 Kant's Kritik {Transcendent. Dial. b. ii. div. 2, p. 322, Engl, transl.). 
The illustration is borrowed from Taillandier, to whose article I am indebt- 
ed for several, other suggestions. 

2B Grote, vol. viii. ch. G8. 



LECTUBE III. 85 

of tlie scholastic method, the manner of handling marks 
the. commencement of modern biblical criticism. The 
suggestions which he offers 29 in reference to false read- 
ings of manuscripts, the spnriousness of books, and the 
temporary character of the author's sentiments, as ele- 
ments in determining the reality of a contradiction, or 
the necessary rejection of a passage on grounds of dog- 
matic improbability, mark a sagacity which has been 
perfected into a science by the growth of modern criti- 
cism. Thus far we have only the elements of inquiry 
and criticism which enter into doubt; yet it would 
be unfair to deny that something of unbelief may have 
been found in a restless care-worn spirit like that of 
Abelard ; and if any one thinks that he intended in 
his work to leave the reader with the impression that 
the solution is impossible, or that the doubter's side is 
the stronger, then we may consider him to have been an 
unbeliever, and regard his teaching as an example, often 
witnessed in later times, of a concealed irony, which, 
while pretending to accept revelation, has represented 
its evidence as insufficient, and its doctrines as unprov- 
able. If however he be taken to be a sceptic, it is only 
the infancy of doubt. It is unlike the bitter disbelief 
shown by the early antichristian writers, or by the 
doubters of modern times. Whatever was valuable in 
the free thought of Abelard outlived his time. The 
spirit of inquiry which spoke through him, continued 
to operate in his successors. 30 His method was even 
adopted by his opponents. His follower, Arnold of 
Brescia, carried free thought from ideas into acts, and 
suffered martyrdom in a premature struggle against the 
papal church. 31 Being dead, Abelard yet spoke, both 
politically and philosophically ; and his character re- 
mains as a type of the spirit of mingled doubt and hope 
andinquiiy which is exhibited in the free thought of any 
of those great epochs, when knowledge is increased, and 
when earnest minds are standing in doubt whether the 
new wine can be placed in the old bottles. 

29 In his Prologue 30 See Cousin's Preliminary Dissertation, p. (201-3.) 
31 See Laurent's La Reforme, p. 2G3. 



86 LECTUBE III. 

The movement, which was beginning to be felt in 
every branch of life and thought in the twelfth century, 
was still more manifest in the course of the thirteenth, 
an age, which, whether viewed in its great men or great 
•deeds, its movements political, ecclesiastical, or intellec- 
tual, is the most remarkable of the middle ages, and 
one of the most memorable in history. 32 The activity 
of speculation is evidenced by the increasing alarm 
which alleged heresy like the Albigensian was causing, 
and by the establishment of the system of ecclesiastical 
police 33 which developed into the inquisition. About 
the middle of the century, the influence of free thought 
in religion is supposed to have made its appearance, in 
a work which originated with one of the newly, created 
mendicant orders. A book which had appeared at the 
beginning of the century, entitled " the Everlasting 
Gospel," was now edited with an introduction by some 
person of influence in the Franciscan order. 34 The idea 
conveyed was, that, as there are three Persons in the 
Godhead, so there must be three dispensations ; that of 
the Father which ended at the coming of Christ, that 
of the Son which was then about to conclude, and that 
of the Spirit, of which the religious ideal of the Francis- 
cans was the embodiment. 

The work caused immense alarm, and was con- 
demned by the council of Aries, 35 on the ground that it 



32 It may be sufficient to allude to names like those of Innocent III., 
Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Frederick II., Cimabue, Dante; and to the great 
works of law (civil and canon) and philosophy, the great works in Gothic 
architecture, and the revival of painting, as examples of the intellectual 
character of the age ; and to the commencement of constitutional liberty, 
the final settlement of Europe, and commencement of the present Euro- 
pean kingdoms, as illustrations of its advance in social government. 

33 In 1229. 

34 The work is attributed to Joachim, a Calabrian abbot, about a.d. 
1200, whom Dante names (Paradiso, xii. 140). It was edited in 1250, 
with an introduction probably written by John of Parma, general of the 
Franciscans. Mosheim {History, cent. 13, part ii. ch. 2, § 33 note), has 
carefully investigated the subject. See also Laurent's La Reforme, pp. 
295-302 ; F. Spanheim's Works, vol. i. p. 1G65 ; Ncander's Kirchengcsch. 
vol. viii. p. 844 seq. 

85 In 1260. Labbei Concil. (1671) vol. xi. part. ii. p. 2361. 



lecture in. 87 

assumed that Christianity was imperfect, and was to le 
replaced by a superior revelation developing from nat- 
ural causes. It is doubtful whether the book was really 
intended to be sceptical. More probably it was mystical. 
Claiming to be founded on an apocalyptic idea, 36 it was a 
revival of the Chiliasm which haunted the Christians 
of Asia Minor in the early centuries ; perhaps also it 
was the utterance of the spiritual yearning which marked 
the rise of the Franciscan order, and a protest against 
the worldliness of the times. It was connected too with 
the longings for political deliverance from the temporal 
dominion of the Popedom which were now beginning 
to be felt. In these latter aspects the idea, so far from 
beiug false, was an advance. Christianity from time to 
time admits a progress, but from within rather than 
from without ; a deeper spiritual appreciation of old 
truths rather than a reception of new ones. The de- 
mand for progress becomes a ground for alarm only 
when it implies that the world has bidden farewell to 
Christianity, either through the mystical expectation of a 
Millennial reign which is to supersede it, or through the 
sceptical belief that our religion has only an historic 
value, and needs remodelling to meet the requirements 
of advancing civilization. If the latter was the mean- 
ing of this utterance of the Franciscan book, the idea 
was the germ of the modern conception of the function 
of Christianity in " the education of the race," the first 
statement of which is usually attributed to Lessing. 37 

The same century which gave birth to this mot, ex- 
pressive of progress in religion, created also another 
which embodied the idea of the comparative study of 
religions. This phrase may have different meanings. 
It may signify the comparison of Christianity with eth- 
nic creeds in its external and internal character, without 

36 Rev. xiv. 6. 

37 The work so entitled passed under Lessing's name ; but its author- 
ship has been recently disputed. In an article in Illgen's Zeitschrift fiir 
die Histovische Theologie for 1839, part iv., on the life of A. Thaer com- 
piled by Koerte, there is evidence given that Lessing was only the editor, 
Thaer having sent it to him anonymously. See also a remark in a letter of 
Lessing, Works, vol. xii. p. 503, (Lachmann's edition.) 



83 LECTFEE III. 



sacrificing the belief tliat a divinely revealed element 
exists in it, which caused it to differ from them in kind as 
well as degree. Or it may mean a comparison of Chris- 
tianity with other religions, as equally false with them, 
equally a deliberate and conscious invention of priest- 
craft which was the shocking view adopted by writers 
like Yolney in the last century, 38 or else a comparison of 
it as equally true with them, as equally a psychological 
development of the religious intelligence, which is the 
view prevalent in many noted works on the philosophy 
of history in the present. 39 It w T as the second of these 
ideas, expressive of actual incredulity, which existed 
in the thirteenth century. It is traceable in the impu- 
tation made by Gregory IX 40 against the celebrated 
eniperor Frederick II, that he had spoken of Moses, 
Christ, and Mahomet, as the three great impostors who 
had respectively deceived the Jews, the Christians, and 
the Arabs. 

The very possibility of the existence of such a com- 
parison presupposes intercourse with disciples of foreign 
creeds. The Christians now no longer possessed a 
merely vague knowledge of Jews and Mahometans. 
The crusades were expiring, the danger which evoked 
them had subsided, and the enmity which supported 
them was decaying. Europe had entered into relations 
of commerce, if not of amity, with Mahometan nations ; 
and through contact w^ith them had come to measure 
them by an altered standard, and to acquire the idea of 
comparing religions. Frederick II, to whom this ex- 
pression is imputed, is stated to have manifested admi- 
ration of Mahometan literature, and affection for his 
Mahometan subjects who afforded him aid in carrying 
out the plans of civilization which his powerful mind 



r8 Les Ruines, c. 24. 

3a E. g. in Benjamin Constant's work, Be La Religion, and Laurent's 
Etudes de VHistoire de VHumanite ; Buckle's History of Civilization ; 
Comte's Philosophic Positive. It is chargeable in spirit on many others. 

4U The letter of Gregory IX, in which the statement is contained, bears 
date July 1, 1239. It is quoted in Raynald's Supplement to Baronius. 
(Annal. Eccles. 1747. vol. ii. p. 218, 13 of Greg. IX. xxvi.) 



LECTURE III. 89 



had formed ; 41 arid it was his indifference to a crusade, 
induced probably by other causes, which led the Pope 
to impute to him the blasphemy just quoted. The con- 
tact with the East, half a century later, in like manner 
afforded the pretext for fastening a charge of unbelief 
on the Knights Templars. 42 Contact with Mahometans 
had thus, we have reason to believe, created a latitude 
of thought in many parts of Christendom. 

The same idea of the comparison of Christianity 
with other creeds reappears in a tale of Boccaccio, 43 in 
which the three great religions are represented under 
the allegory of three rings which a father gave to his 
children, so exactly alike that the judges could not 
decide which was the genuine one of the three, and 
which the copies. It is also illustrated by the tradition 
of the existence of a book, entitled " De Tribus Impos- 
toribus," which has been attributed almost to every 
great name in the middle ages which was conspicuous 
for opposition to the claims of the church, or for uneasi- 
ness under the pressure of its dogmatic teaching. 
The existence of the book is legendary : no one ever 
saw it : and the two distinct works which now bear the 
title can be shown to have been composed respectively 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries : but the 
legend is a witness to the fact of the existence of the 
idea which the book was said to embody. (20) 

It is perhaps in some degree to the influence of the 
doctrine of absorption in the Mahometan philosophy of 
Averroes, a commentator on Aristotle, who was the 
contemporary of Abelard, that we may attribute the 
disbelief in immortality to which we find a tendency 
toward the close of the thirteenth and during the four- 
teenth century. 44 Though it is probable that the indi- 

41 See Renan's Averroes et VAvcrroisme, pp. 292-300, an admirable 
work, to which we shall have occasion frequently to refer. 

4 ' 2 Michelet's Hist, de France, iii. 201. The charge of unbelief against 
the Templars was never satisfactorily established. 

iJ Decameron, i. 8, "Xc Tre Annclla" 

41 On Averroes see Ritter's Geschichte dcr Christlichen Philosophic, 
vol. iv. b. 11, c. 5 ; T.ennemann's Manual, § 259 ; Laurent's La Reforme, 
p. 338-45, 364-85 ; and especially Renan's Averroes, p. 205 seq. 



90 LECTUKE m. 

rect influence of the Arabic philosophy was felt earlier, 
in stimulating a demand for inquiry, a disposition to 
make dogmas submit to the test of reason, which has 
been shown to be the earliest form of mediaeval doubt ; 
yet it was not until the thirteenth century that the 
works of Averroes definitely influenced scholasticism, 
through the teaching of Michael Scot and Alexander 
Hales, and by means of the rapidity of intellectual com- 
munication which forms so singular a feature in mediae- 
val history, spread their influence in Italy as well as in 
France. It was at this time that the doctrine of Aver- 
roes was attacked by Aquinas ; and though the amount 
of its influence can hardly be estimated, we have the 
means of tracing the growth of dislike to its author in 
Christian lands, which is an incidental probability of 
the increasing danger to Christianity arising from it. 
In the middle of the thirteenth century the Franciscans 
study him without evincing hatred. About the end of 
it Dante describes him still without reproaches, though 
he places him in the Inferno along with other heathen 
philosophers : 4& but half a century later, in the pictures 
of the last judgment which exist in several states of 
Italy, each a little historic satire with its own peculiari- 
ties, we find Averroes depicted as the type of incredu- 
lity and blasphemy. In a fresco of the Campo Santo 
of Pisa, executed about 1335, when perhaps the recent 
canonization of Aquinas as an opponent of Averroes 
had directed attention to the influence of the Arabic 
philosopher, Orcagna has placed a separate holgia, the 
lowest in his hell, for three persons, — Mahomet, Anti- 
christ, and Averroes. 46 

The disbelief of immortality was however too obvi- 
ous a temptation in a corrupt age, as well as too gener- 
ally spread, especially in the next century, to be wholly 
attributable to the subtle influence of the doctrine of 
absorption of the Arabic philosophy. A mediaeval 

45 Inferno, iv. 144; " Avc-rrois che il gran comento feo." 

46 Kenan enlarges in one chapter of his work in a most interesting 
manner on " Le role d' Averroes dans la pcinture Italiennc du moyen age," 
pp. (301-16). The illustrations above given are borrowed from it. 



LECTTJPwE III. 01 

English poet 47 attributes incredulity to the higher 
classes of his age ; and Dante, in that poem which is a 
romantic picture of his contemporaries or predecessors, 
when devoting one circle of the Inferno to the habita- 
tion of the " more than a thousand " of those " who 
make the soul die with the body," attributes the cause 
of the sin to Epicureanism, a moral and not an intellec- 
tual cause. 48 It is a sad and humiliating thought to 
reflect also that a cause which must have increased 
incredulity, if it did not create it, was to be found in 
the vices of the clergy, especially near the papal court 
of Avignon. Most of the distinguished laymen whom 
history records as evincing unbelief belonged to the 
political party, which strove to repress the political 
centralization and temporal authority of the church ; 
and it is to be feared that the causes just named were 
the means of repelling more deeply from religion the 
hearts of such persons whose interests or whose vices 
already led them to hate its promoters. 4a 

We have thus collected the few traces which mark 
the history of free thought in the second great crisis of 
church history, and incidentally illustrated its connexion 
with social movements as well as religious, and shown 
its relation to intellectual or moral causes. On the 
intellectual side we have witnessed the scholastic phi- 
losophy giving activity to the spirit of change, and con- 
tact with Mahometan life and opinion imparting the 
latitude to Christian thought which passed into incredu- 
lity. On the moral we have noticed that the effect of 
social wants or of actual viciousness gave birth respec- 
tively to religious restlessness, or to actual disbelief of 
the supernatural. The church of the time was not 
unaware of the movement. In part it tried to repress 
it by persecution and by the Inquisition ; but in part 
also by the lawful weapon of spiritual contest. The 

4? In the poem Piers Plowman, pp. 179, 180, Wright's edition; the 
doctrine of the Fall and its consequences is the subject of the scepticism 
named. 

48 Inferno, Canto x; 15, 118. 

49 Compare Dante, Inferno, xix. 104, &c. See Laurent's Reforme, 
3G4-70, 372-78. 



92 lecture in. 

grand works of defence of the thirteenth century, which 
adjusted scholastic philosophy to dogmatic theology, 
and the spiritual activity of the mendicant orders, were 
real and lawful means of victory, appealing respectively 
to the intellect and heart. 

The moral judgment formed on the movement seen 
in the whole period must vary with the phase of it 
viewed. The attack is not, like those of the early unbe- 
lievers, a struggle with which the sympathies of Chris- 
tians cannot be enlisted. The darker aspects of it par- 
take indeed of the same character ; but it embodies a 
better element, a nobler form of movement, tainted per- 
haps with doubt, but not with disbelief; viz. the at- 
tempt of the human mind to assert its rights in philoso- 
phy, theology, and politics ; and as the epoch closes, 
the great truth has made itself felt in the world as the 
result of the contest, that Christianity is supreme only 
within its own sphere, which it is the problem of reli- 
gious philosophy to discover ; that freedom of inquiry 
is to be used outside the boundary, but that speculation 
must expire in adoration within it. 

A new crisis may be considered to commence in the 
fifteenth century, in consequence of the introduction of 
fresh influences through the classical revival. Yet as 
the two periods are connected in time, the transition is 
not sudden : the old influences gradually vanish away ; 
the new ones had been slowly preparing before they 
became distinctly evident. The intellectual and social 
activity of the past period had been the means of educa- 
ting the mind of Europe for the reception of the new 
forces which were now beginning to operate. 50 

The fifteenth century was a remarkable period for 
Europe, and preeminently for Italy. During several 
ages Italy had grown great by means of commerce and 
religion. The crusades, which had impoverished the 
rest of Europe, had enriched her ; and the subjugation 
of the nations to the court of Eome had made her the 

sn On this subject, see Laurent, b. iii., and J. D. Burchard's Die Cultur 
dcr Renaissance in Ilalicn, 1860. 



LECTTJEE III. 93 

treasury of Europe. Material wealth permitted the 
encouragement of the study of literature, which rela- 
tions of commerce or of conquest with the Greek 
empire had been the means of reviving. Manuscripts 
were collected, and the remains of monuments of classic 
art were studied. The love of antiquity gave perfection 
to art, and influenced literature. The work which 
centuries had slowly prepared now came to perfection. 
The scholastic philosophy declined ; the sources of 
ecclesiastical education and of the existing religion were 
weakened ; and by the close of the fifteenth century 
the tone of the age was in all respects changed. The 
devotion which had expressed itself in the great Gothic 
works of devotion of early ages was expiring, at least in 
Italy, and art itself gradually became secular, and 
expressed ideas more earthly. 

When such a moment of material prosperity, com- 
bined with intellectual and social change, ensues imme- 
diately on the movement previously sketched, we should 
expect to find religion subjected to re-examination, and 
placed in temporary peril. The history confirms the 
supposition. If we regard this crisis as embracing 
about two centuries and a quarter, 51 comprehending the 
classical revival, the opening of a new geographical 
world, and the great religious changes of the Eeforma- 
tion, — a period commencing with the Renaissance, and 
closed by the creation of modern philosophy ; — we shall 
find two principal movements of unbelief for investiga- 
tion, the one caused by literature, a return to a spirit of 
heathenism analogous to that already described in 
Julian ; the second caused by philosophy, a revival of 
pantheism. The first belonged especially to the close 
of the fifteenth century, and had its seat for the most 
part in Tuscany and Rome ; the second to the six- 
teenth, and was represented in the university of Padua. 
In both these movements, especially in the former, the 
open expression of unbelief in literature is rare, though 
the incidental proofs of its existence are abundant. It 

61 1400-1625. 



94 LECTUEE HI. 

was a time of the dissolution of faith, not of overt 
attack. Unbelief was Epicurean indifference, rather 
than earnestness in destroying the old creed. 

Two of the most obvious proofs that we can select 
for proving the existence of a state of unbelief 52 are, 
the ridicule of religion expressed in the burlesque 
poetry of the time, and the antichristian sympathies of 
several distinguished men. 

It would be incorrect however to attribute the satiri- 
cal allusions in the poetry wholly to the influence of 
the classical revival ; for the romantic epic in which 
they occur is the offshoot of the old prose romance of 
mediaeval chivalry, which had in earlier ages amused 
the courts of princes by directing its banter against 
ecclesiastical persons and institutions. 53 But the tone 
of the poetry is now changed. The satire is directed 
against religion itself, not merely against the abuse of 
it, or the eccentricities of its adherents. Free thought 
is not merely political dissatisfaction, but religious un- 
belief. And with the alteration of the tone agrees also 
the increasing disposition to carry satire into the domain 
of the supernatural ; which thus witnesses to the wide- 
spread unbelief in the hearers for whom it was designed. 
Italian critics have doubted indeed whether these epics 
are designed to convey a caricature, or pass beyond 
lawful satire : bi yet even when allowance is made for 
the fact that they are an historic reproduction, and for 
the fund presented for humour by ecclesiastical pecu- 
liarities, it seems impossible to overlook the covert 
satire intended on church beliefs. 55 The intermixture 

12 An Essay of great value, on " the Literature of the Italian Revival," 
appeared in the British Quarterly Review, No. 42, April, 1855, from which 
most of the illustrations and remarks which follow in the next two pages 
are taken. 

53 See Laurent, id. p. 364-70. 

54 Among recent critics who think so are Foscolo ( Quarterly Review, 
No. 42, p. 521), and Panizzi (Boiardo and Ariosto, vol. i. 203), and in 
part also Hallam (History of Literature, vol. i. 195, 303-5), and Guin- 
guene (Hist. Lit. de Vltalie, vol. iv. c. 3-101). 

55 The view here taken is maintained with great ability by the writer 
of the Review named above. One joke, which he cites as not uncommon 
in these epics, is the representation of St. Peter steaming with perspiration 



LECTURE III. 95 

of a comic element would not alone prove this. The 
miracle plays of the middle ages admitted comedy with- 
out intending irreverence ; 56 and a gentle humour per- 
vades many of the Autos of Calderon, which were acted 
on solemn festivals. 57 But there exists in the manner in 
which the supernatural element is managed by such 
poets as Pulci, Bello, and Ariosto, such evident purpose 
to bring into ridicule the existence of belief, that its 
parallel can only be found in the banter used by their 
imitator Byron, in his Yision of Judgment, and implies 
indifference both in author and reader ; the expression 
of contempt, not of anger. 58 

The unbelief which existed in the courts for which 
this poetry was written, is a specimen of the general 
incredulity, or indifference to Christianity, which pre- 
vailed among the educated classes, and was fostered by 
classical studies and tastes. It seems strange to us, who 
have been long accustomed to regard classical culture 
as the basis of general education, and who are impressed 
with the conviction of the great assistance ministered 
by it to theological study, to regard it as the producing 
cause of unbelief. This result of it however was a 
transitory one, originating in the shock which arose from 
the novel thoughts and tastes which mingled themselves 
with the ancient pursuits, and altered the previous 
ideal of life. Ever since the earliest times, a chasm 
had unavoidably separated heathen literature from 
Christian ; and a dislike to heathen studies existed, 

with the labour of opening and shutting the gates of Faradise {Morg. Mac/. 
26. 91) ; and, as a more allowable one, the frequent citation of a certain 
archbishop Turpin as a witness for any absurdities, (Berni Orl. Innam. 18. 
26), whose existence and pseudonymous work Pope Calixtus II had pro- 
nounced to be real. 

63 The last remnant of these miracle plays, which occurs decennially in 
a valley in Bavaria, is an actual proof of this statement. An interesting 
account of the last celebration of it was written by Dr. Stanley in Jlac- 
millan's Magazine for October, I860. 

57 See Dean Trench's Introduction (eh. 8) to his Translations from 
Calderon. 

58 The proof of this position must be sought in the Review already in- 
dicated. The illustration from Byron is due to it. Pulci lived 1431-87 ; 
Bello, about the end of the fifteenth century, the exact date not known ; 
Ariosto, 1474-1533. 



96 LECTURE III. 

which found its full expression in Gregory the Great/ 9 
The result was, that the Christian civilization did not 
consciously admit the introduction of heathen thought ; 
and when the mind awoke suddenly to a perception of 
its beauty and depth, though deeper spirits, like Eras- 
mus, regarded it with the enlightened Christian appro- 
bation which Origen had formerly shown, others were 
led, like Julian of old, from their admiration of it, to 
look with indifference or hostility on Christianity. 
Some of the brilliant and elevated minds that adorned 
the court of the Medicis were suspected of unbelief, or 
of preferring Platonism to Christianity ; eo and after the 
woes of the French invasion at the end of the century 
had deepened the corruption of morals, and stamped 
out political liberty, the last freshness of artistic crea- 
tion, which had linked the public mind to Christianity 
through the deep instincts of the taste, disappeared. 
The art and literature which succeeded are an index of 
the tone which prevailed. Gaining perfection in form 
by the imitation of classic models, they were cold, sen- 
suous, unspiritual. 61 Classical mythology was inter- 
mixed with gospel doctrines ; aud the early years of 
the sixteenth century represent the semi-heathen tone 
of thought which was the transition to the perfect 
fusion which afterwards took place of the old learning 
and the new. It was an age similar to those of modern 
times in France and Germany, which have been called 
periods of humanism, when hope suggests the inaugura- 
tion of a new moral and social era, and the pride of 
knowledge produces a general belief in the power of 
civilization to become the sole remedy for evil. ea 

69 Eichhorn's Geschichteder Liter atur, vol. ii. 443; Bayle's Dictionary, 
sub voc. ; Hallam's History of Literature, vol. i. 4. 21. 

60 Roscoe, in his works on the Medicis, is silent about these tendencies. 
In the fifteenth century, Ficinus, Poggio, Politian, Aretin ; and at the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth, at the Roman court, Paolo Giovio and Bembo were 
suspected. See Brucker's Hist. Philosophies, Period iii. part 1. 1. ii. c. 3. 

61 The comparison of the painting of the Roman, or the later Floren- 
tine schools of the sixteentli century, with that of the older Florentine, 
or of the Umbrian of the fifteenth, will establish this fact so far as re- 
gards art. 

62 Similar periods will be hereafter described ; viz. French " Humanism " 
in Lect. V. and German in Lect. VI. 



LECTURE III. 97 

The social conditions of the age added moral causes 
to the intellectual, which tended to increase the unbe- 
lief, especially in the literary classes. One of them is 
perhaps to be found in the fact that the church prizes 
were the only reward for authorship. By the beginning 
of the sixteenth century authors became largely appre- 
ciated through the press, and received patronage at the 
courts of the various Tvpavvot, who had established 
themselves on the ruins of the old republics. In the 
absence of any law of copyright there was no protection 
for them, 63 and consequently no reward except church 
patronage, which was therefore conferred indiscrimi- 
nately, and tended to foster disbelief in the very recipi- 
ents of it. A merely professional hold of religion is the 
surest road to absolute disbelief It is inconceivable 
that the ecclesiastical scandals which history blushes to 
narrate, could have been perpetrated by believers ; and 
the unbelief imputed to persons in high station, such as 
Leo X with other popes, and cardinals such as Bembo, 
was doubtless, if true, partly the result of the degrading 
effects of professional insincerity. 

Such a state of unbelief could not be permanent, 
whether it was the result of a decaying system, or of 
the introduction of new influences. Nor would we use 
unnecessarily a polemical tone in speaking of a period 
where there is so much cause for Christian humiliation ; 
yet it is worthy of notice that such facts are a refuta- 
tion of the attack which has frequently been made on 
Protestantism, as the cause of eclecticism and unbelief. 
The two great crises in church history, when faith 
almost entirely died out, and free thought developed 
into total disbelief of the supernatural, have been in 
Romish countries ; viz., in Italy in this period, and in 
France during the eighteenth century. In both the 
experiment of the authoritative system of the catholic 
religion had a fair trial, and was found wanting. 

Other causes besides the classical revival were 
operating to stimulate activity of mind and freedom of 

63 This fact is also taken from the anonymous reviewer before quoted, 

5 



98 LECTURE III. 

inquiry. It was an age in which the great system 
of the middle ages was finally dissolving. The dis- 
covery of new worlds seemed at once to call to Europe 
to break connexion with the old centre of ecclesiastical 
centralization ; and to invite to that study of nature 
which should elevate, and as it were emancipate the 
mind, by teaching physical truth and the true method 
of discovery. 04 Political circumstances too, contributed 
toward the creation of ecclesiastical autonomy. The 
European nations had gradually grown into united 
families, and were now ready for cooperation in a sys- 
tem of balance of power. 05 The northern nations, long 
galled under the power of Rome, were panting for free- 
dom ; Germany first reforming her religion, and then 
throwing off her subjection ; England first throwing off 
her subjection, and then compelled to reform herself. 
The old systems of thought were .at an end. The 
change, like all social ones, was not abrupt, but it was 
decisive and final. It was the earthquake which 
shattered for ever the crust of error which had fettered 
thought. 

. It is a matter of wonder that the great revolutions 
just named passed with so little development of scepti- 
cism. In the nations north of the Alps there is hardly 
a trace. The charge of deism, directed in the fifteenth 
century against Pecock, 66 bishop of Chichester, appears 

64 It is hardly necessary to point out that physical science has not only 
made discoveries in its own sphere, but in logic also. By presenting a 
definite body of verified truth, it has rendered possible the creation of a 
system of real as distinct from formal logic. In the scientific discoveries 
that have been made, we can read the logic of the process by which they 
were attained, and thus raise " applied logic " to the dignity of a science, 
and indirectly discover a logic of probable evidence. It is the intellectual, 
and not merely the material value of physical science to which allusion is 
made in the text. It shows at once what man can know, and the limits 
where knowledge must give place to faith, and science to revelation. 
05 See Guizot's Hist, tie la Civilisation de V Europe, eh. (9-11.) 
66 Reginald Fecock was a bishop of Chichester about the middle of the 
fifteenth century ; who in his rigour against the Lollards himself incurred 
the charge of deism. His work which laid him open to it, " The Repressor 
of overmuch blaming of the Clergy," has lately been edited with an in- 
structive preface by Mr. Churchill Babington. The work appeals to reason, 
but is not open to the charge of deism. In tone it may be compared to 
Locke's " Reasonableness of Christianity." 



LECTURE III. 99 

to liave been unfounded. The contest which Ulricli von 
Hiitten carried on against the monks and schools of 
Cologne was literary rather than religious; 07 Hiitten 
being the literary and political reformer rather than the 
sceptic. Even the most advanced spirits of the reform- 
ers/' 8 Servetus and the Sozini, came forth ircm Italy, as 
from the centre of free thought. Nor were they unbe- 
lievers in the reality of a revelation ; and they met 
with no support from the northern reformers. Servetus 
was martyred at Geneva, and the Sozini were banished 
into Poland. It was the spiritual earnestness which 
mingled with the intellectual movement in the Refor- 
mation, which prevented free thought from producing 
rationalism or unbelief. Protestantism was a form of 
free thought ; but only in the sense of a return from 
human authority to that of scripture. It was equally 
a reliance on an historic religion, equally an appeal to 
the immemorial doctrine of the church with Eoman 
Catholicism ; but it conceived that the New Testament 
itself contained a truer source than tradition for ascer- 
taining the apostolic declaration of it. 69 

But Italy was the witness of another sceptical ten- 
dency, besides that which resulted from the classic 
Renaissance, in the last remnant of the influence of 



67 The contest in which Hiitten was engaged against the monks, with 
the Epistolce Obscurorum Virorum, which related to it, is treated in Sir 
W. Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy, p. 205-240 (reprinted from 
Edinburgh Review, No. 53, March 1830). Strauss has also published two 
works on Hiitten, the one a memoir, 1858 ; the other translations from Lis 
work, 1861. (See National Review, No. 12, April 1858.) 

6b Servetus, though a Spaniard by birth, learned his protestantism in 
Italy; Castellio, Ochino, and the Sozini were Italians. See Hallam's 
History of Literature, i. 366, 319 ; 552 seq. : for their views Merle 
D'Aubigne's "-Three Discourses on the Authority of the Scripture." On 
the Reformation in Italy see Quinet's (Euvres, vol. iv. b. hi. ch. 1 ; and 
Professor Blunt's Essays, p. 89, (Essay reprinted from Quarterly Review, 
January 1828.) 

69 It is important to notice that the question asked by the reformed 
churches was simply, what did the inspired apostles teach ? and the dispute 
between them and the Roman catholics referred to the question, what 
source was most suited for supplying information on this point ; — whether 
ecclesiastical tradition or the original documents of the inspired teachers 
themselves. 



100 . LECTCEE in. 

mediaeval philosophy. Throughout the sixteenth cen- 
tury, pantheism manifested itself in connexion with the 
philosophical studies of the university of Padua. The 
form in which it made itself felt was the disbelief of the 
immortality of the soul on speculative grounds. The 
cause of the disbelief was the influence of the philosophy 
of Averroes before noticed. 70 

It will be necessary to explain this system with a 
little detail. It has been already stated that Averroes 
was a noted commentator on Aristotle in the twelfth 
century. The two ground principles of his philosophy 
were, the eternity of matter and the impersonality of 
mind. On this high subject there can be only two 
theories ; the one theistic, which declares that God is 
free, a personal first Cause, and the Creator of matter, 
and that other minds are free and personal ; the other 
pantheistic, which asserts that matter is eternal, and 
that individual minds are only the manifestation of the 
impersonal mind, into which the individual is reab- 
sorbed. Averroes held the latter theory, claiming to 
derive it from Aristotle. It must be confessed however 
that Aristotle's views are uncertain on this point : he 
distinguished between mind, immortal and relative, the 
latter of which, being connected with body, ceased at 
death ; the former outlived it. But he hardly stated 
the doctrine that all souls are part of the universal soul, 
and is silent about their reabsorption into it. These 
points were added by Averroes. 71 

The influence of the philosophy of Averroes is ob- 
servable in three classes of thinkers ; viz., the Spanish 
Jews of his own century, the scholastic philosophers of 
the thirteenth, and the philosophers of the university 
of Padua in the fourteenth and succeeding ages. The 
second of these effects has been already traced : we 
must now notice the third. 

Padua was the great medical university of the fif- 

70 Sec Hal lam, History of Literature, i. 315. A large portion of 
Renan's Averroes, viz. pp. 322-432, is devoted to this subject, and is the 
source of much of the following information. 

7i Kenan, id. (122-8.) 



LECTURE III. 101 

teenth and sixteenth centuries, and was a type of the 
tendency which at that time manifested itself in the 
north-eastern part of Italy toward material and rational 
studies, as in Tuscany to ideal and humanistic. It 
was the medical philosophy of Averroes which had first 
attracted attention to him. But the influence of his 
teaching was innocuous there until the sixteenth centu- 
ry, during the whole of which this university became 
the home of free thought. 

Strict accuracy would require the separation of two 
tendencies in the Peripatetic school of Padua, each de- 
rived from one of Aristotle's commentators.' 2 The one 
was the Averroist just named, which consisted in the 
disbelief of immortality on the ground of absorption. 
Man's soul, being part of the great soul which animates 
the universe, both emanates from it, and is again reab- 
sorbed. The other was the Alexandrist, so called from 
following Alexander of Aphrodisias, 73 which consisted 
in a tendency to pure materialism, an absolute denial 
of immortality and of religion, which almost reaches 
the incredulity earlier expressed in the legend of the 
Three Impostors. Pomponatius is the declared repre- 
sentative of the latter view soon after the beginning of 
the century. 74 Frequently however the unbelief was 
secret, and a seeming show of orthodoxy was main- 
tained by drawing a broad distinction between philoso- 
phy and theology ; and by teaching that these views, 
though seen to be true in the one, were to be accounted 
false in obedience to the teaching of the other. 

It is customary to class along with the Averroists 
some philosophers of a more original turn ; some of 
whom were only indirectly connected with Padua, but 
rather were examples of an attempt to substitute a phi- 

73 Renan, id. (353-67.) 73 He lived about a.d. 200. 

74 On Pomponatius (14G2-1530), see Hitter's Gesch. der Ch. Phil. V. 
pp. 390 seq. ; Hallam's History of Literature, i. 315 ; Renan, Averroes, 
353, &c. ; Tennemann, Manual, § 293; and the Life in the Biographie 
Universale. His theological treatise which was chiefly suspected was Be 
Bnmortalitate ; but Brucker quotes from his other writings to prove 
atheism. As early as 1512 a Lateran council took notice of the disbelief 
of immortality. 



102 LECTUEE III. 

losophy in place of that which was expiring. They are 
said to have manifested the same kind of pantheism, 
and to have been led by it to similar disbelief. Such 
are Cesalpini, Cardan, 75 Bruno, and Yanini. The 
charge is perhaps unfair against the two former, as they 
seem to have held the separate immortality of souls, 
which is more compatible with theism. The two latter 
represent the two schools just noticed, about the end of 
the sixteenth century. 

Bruno 76 belonged mainly to the Averroist school, 
though his views were probably formed independently, 
and certainly extended farther. He not only held the 
existence of a soul pervading the universe, which is the 
form of Pantheism which has been already considered, 
but followed the earlier philosophy of the Neo-Platonists 
in identifying the soul with the matter which it ani- 
mates ; regarding the one as an emanation from the 
other, in the same manner as an effect is merely cause 
or force transferred. It is this belief which occurs in 
Spinoza, which is properly denominated Pantheism, 

75 In place of the scholastic philosophy, which was disappearing, but 
which lived in Padua nearly a century later than in the rest of Europe, 
three tendencies manifested themselves; viz., (1) a reconstruction of, 
metaphysical philosophy, on a new, partially Platonic basis ; (2) a recon- 
struction of logic, by P. Eamas in Prance (see Hallam, History of Litera- 
ture, i. (388-90) ; (3) attention to experimental science, which led ulti- 
mately to the experimental method of Bacon. Telesius and Campanella 
belong to the first of these classes. The system of the former is briefly 
explained in Ritter's Christliche Philosophie, p. 561 seq. ; Renouvier's 
Histoire dc Philosophic, t. 2 ; and in Hallam, History of Literature, ii. *7; 
and of the latter in Hallam, id. (372-6) ; Tennemann's Manual, § 31*7 ; 
and Bitter, id. vi. 3, seq. Both systems are metaphysical rather than theo- 
logical. That of Cesalpini is also explained in Putter, id. v. 653, seq. ; in 
Hallam, id. ii. 5; that of Cardan in Brucker, period hi. part ii. lib. 1. c. 
3 ; Buhle, Gesch. der Neu. Phil. ii. 857, seq. ; and in Morley's Life of 
Cardan (1853). 

76 Giordano Bruno (1550-1600), Ritter's Chr. Phil. v. 595. &c. See 
nallam's Hist, of Lit. ii. (8-14.) Buhle's Geschichte der Phil. ii. 10B. 
His life and opinions have been described by Mr. G. H. Lewis in the Biogr. 
Llist. of Phil. p. 314, seq. A list of his works is given in Buhle Gcsch. 
der Neu. Phil. ii. 703, seq., and more briefly in Tennemann's Manual, 
§ 300. They were collected and published in 1830. One of them, the 
" Spaccio delta bestia trionfante, v being very scarce, and only known by 
report, was formerly thought to be a translation of the celebrated woik 
" De Tribus Impostoribus.'' 



lecture ni. 103 

where the Creator is forgotten in creation. The former 
line of Pantheism noticed in Averroes approaches more 
nearly to theism. Bruno's unbelief was not gay and 
flippant, but sombre and earnest. With a fantastical 
conceit which can hardly be explained, he travelled as 
the missionary to propagate his own views like a knight 
errant tilting at all opinions, with a soul especially em- 
bittered against the Christian priesthood. 77 On his re- 
turn to Italy from his travels he fell into the hands of 
the church, and sutler ed death for his opinions. 

Yanini 78 similarly led a wandering life, but is a 
character of less seriousness : occasionally he manifested 
the inconsistency of indifference to his own opinions. 
Reverencing the memory of Pomponatius, he expressed 
the same disbelief of the spiritual and of immortality. 
He was possibly an atheist. Certainly his views were 
tinged with deep bitterness against religion ; and after 
leading a restless life, he suffered a cruel martyrdom for 
his belief. 

Bruno and Yanini were the apostles of a doctrine 
which the world would no longer heai\ The dawn of 
physical knowledge was turning men to a truer study 
of the universe, and caused their labours to be in vain. 
The age of indifference was gone. The alarm caused 
by the Reformation had kindled a strong ecclesiastical 
reaction, especially in Italy, and the religious earnest- 
ness and intellectual activity of Germany had awoke an 
intelligent reaction on the part of the Catholic church. 79 
Hence these two writers incurred a danger unknown to 
their predecessors. Martyrs are men who are before 
their age or behind it. Their sad fate throws an inter- 
est around their lives. Unbelief must always have its 
confessors. It is to be hoped that the inhumanity of 

77 In his travels he reached Oxford, and was admitted to lecture in the 
university. 

78 Lucilio Vanini (1586-1619.) His chief works were u Amphithea- 
trum iEternae Providentiae," and " De Admirandis Naturae Arcanis." The 
latter was condemned by the Sorbonne. Full particulars are given in 
B rucker's Hist. Phil, period iii. part ii. 1. i. ch. 6. See also Buhle, Gesch. 
der Neu. Phil. ii. 866, seq. ; and the Life in the Bioqraphie Universelle. 

79 On this reaction, see Hallam, Hist, of Lit. i. (536-44). 



104: LECTURE in. 

Christendom will never again cause it to have its 
martyrs. 

The survey is now complete of the crisis which oc- 
curred in the transition from the middle ages to modern 
history, forming the third of those enumerated in a for- 
mer lecture. We have witnessed amidst its complexity 
the manifestation of the same principles as in former 
epochs ; the restlessness of the human mind struggling 
to be free, intellectually, politically, religiously ; and we 
have endeavoured to trace the operation of the influ- 
ence of classical literature and metaphysical philosophy 
in inducing the decay of Christian feeling and belief. 

The means adopted for counteracting the movement 
were similar to those used in former periods, viz. an in- 
tellectual argument and a spiritual awakening. In 
some instances, indeed, in accordance with the spirit of 
the time, or more truly with the spirit of human nature, 
material force and cruelty were employed, and the un- 
believer was silenced by martyrdom. But neither ma- 
terial power nor the autocratic unity of the Roman 
church was able to repress the growth of the human 
mind. Conviction must be directed, not crushed. The 
revival of books of evidences, as soon as printing became 
common, about the close of the fifteenth century, which 
were designed to confirm faith, was a more lawful form 
of warfare. 80 They were constructed however on a 
basis unsuited to an age when first principles were being 
reconsidered, being an attempt to establish the authority 
of the church and the duty of submission to an external 
form of faith, and lacked the surer basis adopted in 
Protestant works of evidence, which is found in the ex- 
ternal divine authority of the Bible rather than the 
church. The creation of the order of the Jesuits, 
though directed more against Protestantism than against 

eo This revival is at the same time the proof of the existence of doubt. 
Staiidlin, in Eichhorn's Geschichte der Lit. vol. vi. p. 24 seq. enumerates 
treatises of this kind by Fieinus, Alfonso de Spina, Savonarola, iEneas 
Sylvius, and Pico di Mirandola. The rare work of Sebonde also, which 
has been supposed to be deistical, is really a treatise on natural religion as an 
evidence of revealed. SeeHallam's Hist, of Lit. i. 139, 40 ; Tennemann's 
Manual. 277. 



LECTURE III. 105 

unbelief, was a witness, like the previous reactionary 
movement of the scholastic writers in the thirteenth 
century, to the wish to wrest the use of learning out of 
the hands of the opponents of the church, and to em- 
ploy the weapons of reason in defence of it. 

The judgment formed on this epoch of free thought, 
when we have separated from it the Protestantism 
which craves other satisfaction for the human mind 
than that which is implied in submission to human au- 
thority, and the scepticism which was merely transi- 
tional doubt, must be condemnatory. The unbelief was 
indeed a phase of the general improvement ; but one 
which is instructive as a warning rather than as an ex- 
ample, illustrating the abuse not the use of free thought. 
The evil nevertheless was temporary, and belongs to 
the past ; the good was eternal : and the elements of 
real intellectual improvement contained in the struggle 
have been taken up into the constitution of modern 
thought and society. 

"We have now considered three great epochs in the 
history of free thought, and watched Christianity in 
contact or conflict with the old heathen philosophy, 
with the thought Scholastic or Mahometan of the mid- 
dle ages, and with the revival of classical learning. It 
remains to enter upon the consideration of the fourth, 
and to observe it in relation to modern science. 

The seventeenth century introduced as striking a 
revolution in philosophy as the corresponding ones 
which the two preceding ages had produced in litera- 
ture and religion. 

Two distinct thinkers, Bacon and Descartes, from 
different points of view, perceived the necessity for con- 
structing a new method of inquiry. Their position was 
similar to that of Socrates of old. They saw that if 
knowledge was to be rendered sound, it must be based 
on a new method. 81 They both alike sought it in expe- 
rience ; Bacon in sensational, Descartes in intellectual, 

81 On Socrates, see Grote's History of Greece, xol. viii. ch. GS. 

5* ' 



106 lecture m. 

the instinctive utterance of consciousness. 82 The indi- 
rect effects on religion produced by their teaching will 
be seen more fully hereafter. Our present object is to 
sketch the influence exercised by Descartes on the theo- 
logical speculations of Spinoza, before passing in suc- 
ceeding lectures to the detailed study of those peculiari- 
ties which free thought has presented in the different 
countries in which it has been manifested. 83 

Spinoza's memory has been branded with the stigma 
which attached to his character during life. 84 Born in 
Holland, of Jewish origin, his early repudiation of the 
legends of the Talmud in which he was educated, caused 
his excommunication by his own people. Finding him- 
self an outcast, he sought society among a few sceptical 
friends, one of whom was a physician named Yan den 
Ende, whom a sense of injustice united to him by the 

82 On Bacon and Descartes see Hitter, Christliche Philosophic, v. 309 
seq., and vii. 3 seq., Bulile iii. (1-86), Tennemann's Gcschichte, x. 200 
seq. ; and the references given in Tennemann's Manual, § 312 and 333. 
Among English sources, see Morell's History of Philosophy, i. 76, 166 ; 
Lewes' History of Philosophy, Hallam's History of Literature, vol. ii. 
part 3. eh. 3. On Descartes, see also Bouillet's Histoire de la Revolution 
Cartcsicnne (1842) p. 95-144; and on Bacon, the monograph by Kuno 
Fischer of Jena, translated 185*7. 

B3 In chronological order Herbert and Hobbes ought to come before 
Spinoza. Indeed their works furnished suggestions to him ; but as the 
forms of scepticism which follow are arranged by nations, it is more con- 
venient to place Spinoza here alone previously to. treating the others. 

8i The best means of understanding Spinoza is the perusal of his own 
works. It is only in modern times that he has been understood. The old 
works against him, Reimannus (de Athcismo), Mansveldt, Cuperus, and 
Kortholt (de Trib. Impostoribus), are chiefly obsolete. A memoir exists 
by Colerus, 1706. Among the moderns he has been carefully studied by 
E. Saisset, both in Essais de Philosophic Religieuse, 1859, and in a dis- 
sertation prefixed to a translation of his works, 1861, and in a learned 
article in the Revue des Deux Mondes for Jan. 1802 ; also by Damiron, 
Essai sur Spinoza. Among English writers, see Hallam, History of Litera- 
ture, iii. 344 seq., Lewes' History of Philosophy, and an article on the 
Theologico-Politicus in the .British Quarterly Review, No. 16, for Nov. 
1848, referring to Spinoza's theology. In Germany his opinions have been 
examined by Ritter, Chr. Phil. vii. 169 seq. ; Buhle iii. 503 seq. ; Tenne- 
mann's Gcschichte, x. 462 seq. Schleiermacher in early life expressed his 
opinion of him in words of extravagant eulogy, (Redcn uber die Relig., 
p. 47, quoted in Lewes' History of Philosophy.) Consult also the various 
references given in Tennemann's Manual, § 338. A volume of Spinoza's 
writings has lately been found and published, which is made interesting by 
a photognaph from a rare portrait of him. 






LECTUKE in. 107 

bond of common sympathy. His life was passed in re- 
tirement, in hard, griping poverty. Possessing a mind 
of great originality, and a fondness for demonstrative 
reasoning never surpassed, he. lived a model of chaste 
submissive virtue, searching for speculative truth ; 
branded as an atheist in philosophy while living,, and 
regarded since his death as the parent of many of the 
worst forms of rationalism in religion. Yet his charac- 
ter is one that cannot fail to excite a certain kind of 
pity. Unlike the frivolous selfish atheism, the immoral 
Epicureanism, of the French unbelief of the following 
century, his investigations were grave, his tone digni- 
fied, his temper gentle, his spirit serious. It is to be 
feared that he did not worship God ; but he at least 
worshipped, at the cost of social martyrdom, what he 
thought to be truth. If he did not believe in revealed 
religion, he at least tried to embody what he believed 
to be its moral precepts. Though we may shrink with 
horror from his teaching, we cannot, when we compare 
him with other unbelievers, withhold our pity from the 
teacher. 

His works are short, but weighty. Of his important 
treatises, the one, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicits, 
shows him as the Biblical critic ; the other, the EtMca, 
exhibits his philosophy. In the former, written in early 
life, he derives his materials and mode of handling from 
the Jewish mediaeval theologian Maimonides ; in the 
latter, the product of his riper years, from Descartes." 5 
But he had undoubtedly come under the influence of 
Descartes before writing the former work, and it is 
certain that the effects of it on his own philosophical 

85 In the admirable article in the Revue, quoted in the last note, 
Saisset discusses carefully the sources from which Spinoza derived his 
theology and philosophy. Cousin in earlier life had regarded his philoso- 
phy as borrowed from Descartes {Fragm. de Phil. Cartes., p. 428 seq.), 
and Ritter coincides in this opinion. More recently, in the new edition 
(1861) of his Hist. Gen. de la Philos., he regards it as borrowed from 
Maimonides (p. 45*7.) See on Maimonides' Philosophy, Adolph. TYanck's 
Etudes Orientates, p. 318. Saisset after a careful examination comes to 
the conclusion that the theology was suggested by Maimonides' More 
Nevochim, but that the philosophy was derived neither from the Kabbala, 
nor Averroes, nor Maimonides, but from Descartes. 



108 LECTURE III. 

scheme are already discernible in it. We shall there- 
fore commence with the latter, and attempt to under- 
stand his philosophy, and its application to religion, 
before studying his special criticism of Revelation. 

Descartes had aimed, like the great thinkers of ear- 
lier times, to gain a general view of the universe of 
being ; but had sought it by a different mode. Caring 
rather for certitude of method, reality in the highest 
principles, than for results attained, he had seen that a 
knowledge of being must rest on a knowledge of the 
consciousness which tells us of being. His principle, 
" Cogito, ergo sum," is the expression of this conviction. 
Therefore, carrying analysis into the human mind, he 
had grasped those ideas which appeal to us with irre- 
sistible clearness, and commend themselves as axioms 
requiring no proof; and from these ideas, or rather 
from the idea of cause, the primitive of them, regarded 
by him as innate, he had demonstrated a priori . the 
being and attributes of God, and the principles which 
dominate in the great fields of knowledge. 66 

Spinoza's object was similar ; but he sought to attain 
it in a different manner : rejecting, on the one hand, 
the dualism by which Descartes had opposed mind and 
matter, he regarded each as a different mode of the 
same primitive substance, and, on the other, the limited 
idea of the divine Being, he conceived that the mind of 
man realizes the notion of Him as unlimited. There 
are three different opinions in reference to our capacity 
of knowing the infinity of God. Either our knowledge 
of Him is only negative and relative ; we know only 
what He is not, and our positive notions of His nature 
are drawn from the analogy of human personality ; or, 
secondly, we have an intuition of His infinity, but so 
bare of attributes, that while it guarantees the reality 
of our apprehensions of Him, we are dependent on ex- 
perience -for its development into a conception ; or, 
thirdly, the human mind can apprehend His infinity 
positively, antecedent to the application of limitations 

ee See the references given in a former note. 



LECTUEE m. 109 

to it. 87 The last of these three views belonged to Spi- 
noza, along with the ancient Eleatics, the Neo-Platonists 
of the early ages, and the principal schools of modern 
German philosophy. Accordingly he tried to work out 
with mathematical rigour in geometrical form a philoso- 
phy of existence, conceiving that the mind grasps the 
idea of God as infinite substance, and understands its 
development under two modes ; viz. extension and 
thought : the former the objective act of Deity, the 
latter the subjective. 88 The universe therefore is noth- 
ing but the manifestation of God : God is the sum total 
of it ; the unity in its variety ; the infinite comprehend- 
ing its finity. Cause and effect are identical ; the na- 
tura naturans, and natura naturata. Causation is 
change ; but it is nothing but substance assuming at- 
tributes, and attributes assuming modes. Phenomena 
are only the bubbles which arise on the bosom of the 
ocean and disappear, absorbed in its vastness. The uni- 
verse is bound in one vast chain of fatalism, one grand 
and perfect whole. Man's perfection is to know by con- 
templation the universe in which he has his being. 

Such a system has been called atheistic, because 
it is silent about the presence of a personal first 
Cause. It might be more truly denominated Panthe- 
istic, not in the vague sense in which that term is ap- 
plied to denote the belief in a Deity as an anima 
mundi, like that explained in reference to the Averro- 
ists, 89 but to imply that the sum total of all things, the 
universe, is Deity. Its influence on the question of re- 
vealed religion will be obvious. It admits that the 
phenomena which we attribute to miracle in the pro- 
cess of revelation are facts, but it denies their miracu- 
lous character. 90 They are the mere manifestation of some 
previously unknown law, turning up accidentally at the 
particular moment, some previously unknown mode in 
which the all-embracing substance manifests itself. In 

87 Compare the Essay on Cousin by Sir W. Hamilton (Dissertations, 
p. 32). 

8K Ethica, part ii. prop. 1 and 2. 

89 P. 100. . eo TJieol Polit. c. vi. 



110 LECTURE III. 

this view all religions become various expressions of the 
great moral and spiritual truths which they embody, 
and true piety consists in rising beyond them to the 
vision of the higher truths. which they typify, and the 
practice of the principles which they enjoin as rules. 
u Dico," wrote Spinoza, " ad salutem non esse omnino 
necesse, Christum secundum carnem noscere ; sed de 
astern o illo fllio Dei, hoc est, Dei seterna sapientia quse 
sese in omnibus rebus, et maxime in mente humana et 
omnium maxime in Christo Jesu manifestavit, longe 
aliter sentiendum." 91 

Spinoza, though a Jew, had examined the claims of 
Christianity. Indeed the discussions, half political, half 
religious, of the Dutch theology, would have compelled 
the investigation of it, independently of his own large- 
ness of sympathy with the philosophical history of hu- 
man religion. 92 His philosophy of revealed religion is 
contained in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.™ This 
work was called forth by the disputes of the age, and 
had the political object of defending liberty of thought 
as necessary to the safety both of the state and of re- 
ligion. The question of predestination had rent the 
Dutch church shortly before this time ; and when the 
victory remained with the Calvinistic party, the 
opinions of the liberal Remonstrants were treated as 
crimes. Spinoza proposed in this work a plan, perhaps 
suggested by the perusal of Hobbes, for curing these 
dissensions. The book is a critical essay, in which he 
surveys the Jewish and Christian religions, arid ends in 
the conclusion that certainty on . the subject of a revela- 
tion is impossible ; accordingly that the remedy for 
theological acrimony must be sought in a return to 

91 Ep. xxi. vol. iii. p. 195. (Lips. ed. 1846.) It will be hereafter seen 
how exactly this result is parallel to the religious philosophy and Christol- 
ogy developed in the Hegelian school. See Lect. VII. 

92 A succinct .account of the contests in Holland is given in C. Butler's 
Life of Grotius, c. 5, 6, 12. See also Amand Saintes, Bisloire de la Vie 
Spinoza, p. 63 ; Ease's Church History, E. T. § 356; Hagenbach, Dogmcn- 
qcachichtc, § 235. 

93 A good analysis for an English reader may be found in the article 
quoted above from the British Quarterly Review. 



LECTUKE in. Ill 

what lie regards to be the simple doctrine which Christ 
taught, the love of God and one's neighbour ; that phi- 
losophy and theology ought to be severed • the one aim- 
ing at truth and resting on universal ideas, the other at 
obedience and piety and resting on historic authority 
and special revelation. Hence, while uniformity of re- 
ligious worship and practice w T as to be prescribed, he 
claimed that unlimited liberty of speculation ought to 
be tolerated. 94 

It is in the survey of Judaism and Christianity in 
the earlier part of this work that he exhibits the views 
in which he has anticipated many of the speculations of 
rationalism. He examines first into the grounds which 
Eevelation puts forward for its claim to authority, viz. 
prophecy, the Jewish polity, and miracles ; 95 . next the 
principles of interpretation, and the canon of the two 
Testaments ; 96 lastly, the nature of the divine teach- 
ing ; 97 endeavouring to show that the fundamental arti- 
cles of faith are given in natural religion. In this way 
he exhibits his views on those branches which are now 
denominated the evidences, exegesis, and doctrines. In 
the discussion of prophecy he analyses the nature of 
prophetic foresight into vividness of imagination ; and 
exhibits the human feeling and sentiment intertwined 
with it. 98 He regards the Hebrew idea of election as 
merely the theocratic mode of representing their own 
good success in that region of circumstances which was 
not in human power. 99 His explanation of miracles has 
been already stated : the course of nature seems to him 
to be fixed and immutable ; and he argues that inter- 
ference with its course is not a greater proof of Provi- 
dence than a perpetual unchanging administration. 1 

As his philosophy is seen in the treatment of the 
evidences, so his criticism appears in the discussion of 
the canon. He examines the several books of scripture, 
and concludes from supposed marks of editorship that 
the Pentateuch and historical books were all composed 

94 TJuol. Pol. ch. 1 9, 20. The idea here is borrowed from Hobbes. 

95 Ch. (1-6.) 9fi Ch. 7-12. 97 Ch. 13-15. 88 Ch. 1, 2. 
S9 Ch. 3. » Ch. 6. 



112 LECTURE III. 

by one historian, who was, he thinks, probably Ezra, 
Deuteronomy being the first composed." The prophetic 
books he resolves into a collection of fragments. His 
opinions on this department would be rejected as imma- 
•ture by modern rationalist critics; yet they have an 
historic interest as marking the rise of the searching 
investigations into the sources and construction of the 
Hebrew sacred literature, which have been pursued in 
an instructive manner in modern times. His view 
respecting the nature of scriptural doctrines, 3 that they 
can be reduced to the teaching of natural reason, is a 
corollary from his philosophy, which cannot admit that 
any religious truth is obligatory which is not self-evi- 
dent, and is analogous to the doctrine which a short 
time previously had been stated by Lord Herbert of 
Cherbury. 4 

These remarks will suffice in explanation of the 
criticism exhibited in this work. The book marks an 
epoch, a new era in the critical and philosophical inves- 
tigation of religion. Spinoza's ideas are as it were the 
head waters from which flows the current which is 
afterwards parted into separate streams. If viewed 
merely as a specimen of criticism, they are in many 
respects very defective. For this branch was new in 
Spinoza's time. Learning had been directed since the 
renaissance rather to the acquisition of stores of infor- 
mation concerning ancient literature than reflective ex- 
amination of the authenticity and critical value of the 
sources. Yet Spinoza's sagacity is so great, that the 
book is suggestive of information, and fertile in hints of 
instruction to readers who dissent most widely from his 
inferences. 5 In Spinoza's own times the work met with 
unbounded indignation. Indeed hardly any age could 
have been less prepared for its reception. So rigorous 
a theory of verbal inspiration was then held, that the 

2 Ch. 8. 

3 Ch. (12-14.) 4 Be Veritate. See Lect. IV. 

6 Great critical sagacity is evinced in describing the characteristics of 
prophecy (ch. i. and ii.), and the historic peculiarities of the Pentateuch 
(ch. viii.) ; which however, it would seem, had been observed partially by 
some of the learned Dutch theolo^iaus of the time. 



LECTURE in. 113 

question of the date of the introduction of the Hebrew 
vowel points was discussed under the idea that inspira- 
tion would be overthrown, if the admission was made 
that they were introduced after the time of the closing 
of the canon. 6 The tone of fairness in Spinoza's man- 
ner, which compels most modern readers to believe in 
his honesty, and which presents so striking a contrast 
to the prolaneness of subsequent scepticism, was then 
regarded as latent irony. The work on its appearance 
was suppressed by public authority ; but it was fre- 
quently reprinted ; and probably no work of free 
thought has ever had more influence, both on friends 
and foes, except the memorable work of Strauss in the 
present age. Not only have freethinkers been moulded 
by it, but it has produced lasting effects on those who 
have loved the faith of Christ. For Spinoza's work, if 
it did not create, gave expression to the tendency of 
which slight traces are perceptible elsewhere, 7 to recog- 
nize a large class of facts relating to the personal pecu- 
liarities of the inspired writers, and to the " human ele- 
ment," as it has been frequently called 8 in scripture, for 
which orthodox criticism lias always subsequently had 
to find a place in a theory of inspiration ; facts which 
first shook the mechanical or verbal theory, which, how- 
ever piously intended, really had the effect of degrading 

6 This lay at the bottom of the opposition which Buxtorf and Owen 
offered to the view, now universally adopted, of Capellus and Morinus, 
that the vowel points were a late introduction in Hebrew, perhaps of the 
sixth to the tenth centuries A.D. The history of the controversy is given 
in Walch's Bibliotheca Tlieol. Select, vol. iv. p. 244, 268; and Wolf's 
Bibliotheca Hebr. part iv. p. 7 ; part ii. p. 25 and 270. The Formula 
Consensus of the Helvetic church (1675), (on which see Schweizer in Her- 
zog's Real. Encycl. xi. 439 seq. ; Henke's Kirchengeschichte, vol. iv. §34; 
Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. § 222), was partly designed against the views 
of Capellus. On the question of the vowel points, consult the Prolegomena 
to Walton's Polyglot, iii. 39; Carpzov. Crit. Sacr. 242 seq. 'Wolf's 
Bibliotheca Hebraica, ii. 475 ; iv. 214 seq. ; and among the moderns, 
Gesenius's Gesch. der Hebr. Sprachc, § 48. 

7 E. g. in Le Clerc. See Sentimens de Quelques TJieologiens d^IIol- 
lande sur VHistoire Critique dii pere Simon, and his Five Letters on 
Inspiration ; and in the French Roman catholic critic, R. Simon, in reference 
to whom see note on p. 83. 

8 E. g. by Dr. Lee on Inspiration, Lect. I. 



114 LECTURE m. 

the sacred writers almost into automatons, and regarded 
them as the pens instead of the penmen of the inspiring 
Spirit. 9 Indirectly the effect of Spinoza's thought was 
seen even in the English church. The difficulties 
which, through means of the English deists, it brought 
before the notice of the great apologetic writers of our 
own country, created the free, but perhaps not irrever- 
ent theory of revelation manifested in the churchmen 
of the last century, 10 which restricted the miraculous 
assistance of inspiration to the specific subject of the 
revealed communication, the religious element of scrip- 
ture, and did not regard it as comprehending also the 
allusions, scientific or historic, extraneous to religion. 

Nor is it merely in respect of criticism that Spinoza's 
views have affected subsequent thought. The central 
principle of his philosophy, the pantheistic disbelief of 
miraculous interposition which has subsequently en- 
tered into so many systems, was first clearly applied to 
theology by him. Wherever the disbelief in the super- 
natural has arisen from a priori considerations, and ex- 
pressed itself, not with allegations of conscious fraud 
against the devotees of religion, nor with attempts to 
explain it away as merely mental realism, but with 
assertions that miracles are impossible, and nature an 
unchanging whole ; this disbelief, whether insinuating 
itself into the defence of Christianity, or marking the 
attack on it, has been a reproduction of Spinoza. 

In taking a retrospect of the long period over which 
we have travelled in this lecture, embracing the twofold 
crisis of free thought in the middle ages and the inau- 
guration of the modern era, we cannot fail to be im- 

9 Compare Dr. Lee's learned and valuable work on Inspiration, ch. iv. 
The writer of this lecture need hardly say, that he cordially and reverently 
believes in the miraculous character of scripture inspiration ; and that the 
remarks here in the text are only aimed at the extravagant views held in 
the seventeenth century, such as that, above named, in reference to the 
Hebrew vowel points. No Christian however ought to fail to appreciate 
the deep reverence for holy scripture implied in the theory from which 
dissent is here expressed. #^ 

a0 A note, giving proof of the fact here stated, will be found at the end 
of Lect. VIII. 



LECTURE III. 115 

pressed with the grand idea of the permanent victory 
of truth, and the exquisite order according to which the 
fatherly providence of God makes ail things conduce 
together for good. When the course of history is 
viewed in its true perspective, we perceive that Al- 
mighty love ruleth. The period has comprised most of 
the great movements, political or intellectual, which 
have occurred in European history since the Christian 
era. The fall of the Roman empire, the gradual recon- 
struction of society, the revival of learning, the inven- 
tion of printing, the discovery of a new geographical 
world, the creation of modern philosophy, embraced in 
it, include the mention of almost every great event, 
with the exception of the French revolution, which has 
modified the character of the human mind, or affected 
the destiny of Christianity. At times it seemed as if 
Christianity was on the point of being extinguished by 
unbelief; at other times, the church seemed to lend 
itself to the extermination of all freedom of investigation. 
Yet Christianity has lasted through all these dangers, 
throwing off, like a healthy system, the errors which 
from time to time insinuated themselves into it, and 
diffusing its blessings of eternal truth into every region 
of life and thought. The past is the pledge of hope for 
the future. 

Look forth ! — that stream behold, 
That stream upon whose bosom we have passed 
Floating at ease, while nations have effaced 
Nations, and death has gathered to his fold 
Long lines of mighty kings : — look forth, my soul ! 
(Nor in this vision be thou slow to trust) 
The living waters, less and less by guilt 
Stained and polluted, brighten as they roll, 
Till they have reached the eternal city — built 
For the perfected spirits of the just. 11 

u Wordsworth, Ecclcdaslical Sonnets, part ii. 47. 



LECTURE IV. 

DEISM IN ENGLAND PREVIOUS TO A. D. 1760. 



Isaiah lix. 19. 

Wficn the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall 

lift up a standard against him. 

THE forms assumed by free thought in the fourth 
great crisis of the Christian faith, which commenced 
with the rise of modern philosophy, and has continued 
with slight intervals to the present time, have been al- 
ready stated 1 to be chiefly three, corresponding with 
the three nations in which they have been manifested. 

In this lecture we shall sketch the history of one of 
these forms — English Deism — by which name the form 
of unbelief is denominated which existed during the 
close of the seventeenth and the first half of the eight- 
eenth century. If the elates be marked by correspond- 
ing political history, its rise may be placed as early as 
the reign of Charles I ; its maturity in the period from 
the revolution of 1688 to the invasion of the Pretender 
in 1745 ; its decay in the close of the reign of George 
II, and the early part of that of George III.' 2 

This long period was marked by those great events 
in intellectual and social history which were calculated 

1 Sec above p. 11. 

2 This computation regards lord Herbert of Cherbury as marking the 
commencement, and Hume the close; the doubters of the latter half of the 
eighteenth century, such as Gibbon, being excluded, because their writings 
are marked by the forms of French unbelief. 



LECTURE IV. 117 

to awaken the spirit of free inquiry. It witnessed the 
dethronement of constituted authorities — intellectual, 
ecclesiastical, and political ; the constant struggle of 
religious factions ; and on two occasions civil war and 
revolution. It was affected by the rise of the philoso- 
phy of Bacon, and the positive advances of natural 
science under Newton and his coadjutors. It compre- 
hended moments marked by the outburst of native 
genius, and others influenced by contact with the conti- 
nental literature, both with the speculative theology of 
Holland and the dramatic and critical literature of 
France. 3 Above all it was illumined by the presence 
of such an array of great minds in all departments of 
intellectual activity as can rarely be matched in a single 
period. If, when the human mind in the middle ages 
was warmed into life after the winter of its long torpor, 
under the genial influence of the revival of literature, 
the renewal of its power was marked by a disposition to 
throw off the trammels which had bound it in the night 
of its darkness, how much more might such a result be 
expected when it was basking under the sunshine of 
meridian brightness, and exulting in the consciousness 
of strength. 

A special peculiarity of this period-likely to produce 
effects on religion has been already mentioned. The 
philosophy of this age compared with former ones was 
essentially a discussion of method. The two rival philoso- 
phies which now arose are generally placed in opposition 
to each other, as physical and mental respectively, that 
of Bacon being conversant with nature, that of Des- 
cartes with man. 4 But in truth in one respect both 
were united. Each was analytical ; each strove to lay 
down a general method for investigating the sphere of 
inquiry which it selected. Both were reactions against 

3 The former in the struggle of Arminians and Calvinists in the Puritan 
controversy ; the latter in the revolution supposed to be caused in our litera- 
ture by the influence of Dryden. 

4 In addition to the references given in Lect. TIL (p. 106) see Cousin's 
Hint, de la Phil, au 18 e siecle (Lecon 3) ; and Remusat's Essai sur Bacon, 
1857; but especially the sketch of the relation of Bacon's philosophy to 
religion in K. Fischer's monograph on Bacon, (c. x. and xi.) 



118 . LECTUKE IV. 

the dogmatic assumptions of former systems ; both as- 
sumed the indispensable necessity of an entire revolu- 
tion in the method of attaining knowledge. Accord- 
ingly, though differing widely in appealing to the exter- 
nal senses or the internal intuitions respectively, they 
both built philosophy in the criticism of first principles. 
Hence, independently of any particular corollaries from 
special parts of their systems, the influence of their 
spirit was to beget a critical, subjective, and analytical 
study of any topic. When applied to religion, this is 
the feature which subsequently characterizes alike the 
unbelief and the discussion of the evidences. Difficul- 
ties and the answers to difficulties are found in an ap- 
peal to the functions and capacities of the interpreting 
mind. This appeal to reason was denominated ration- 
alism in the seventeenth century, prior to the present 
application of the term in a more limited and obnoxious 
sense. The specific doctrine arrived at by this process, 
w r hich allows the existence of a Deity, and of the re- 
ligion of the moral conscience, but denies the specific 
revelation which Christianity asserts, was called theism 
or deism. (21) 

In the period which we have mentioned as marking 
the first stage of deism, extending from its commence- 
ment to the close of the seventeenth century, the pecu- 
liarity which characterized the. inquiry w T as the political 
aspect which it bore. The relation of religion to politi- 
cal toleration 5 gave occasion for examining the sphere 
of truth which may form the subject of political inter- 
ference. 

Two writers of opposite schools are usually regarded 
as marking the rise of deism, both of whom belonged to 
this phase of it, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and Hobbes. 
Both formed their systems in the reign of Charles I. 6 
The one rejected revelation by making religion a matter 

6 This inquiry was called forth in the disputes of the established church 
against popery and puritanism, and led to works in favour of -toleration by 
Chillingworth, Bp. Jeremy Taylor. {Liberty of Prophesying), and later by 
Milton ; and towards the close of the century by Locke. 

6 Hobbes's Leviathan was not published till 1651 ; but the thoughts 
were evidently suggested by the woes of the reign of Charles I. 



LECTUEE IV. 119 

of individual intuition, the other by mating it a matter 
of political convenience. 

Lord Herbert, 7 the elder brother of the saintly poet, 
if looked at as a philosopher, must be classed with Des- 
cartes rather than with Bacon, though chronology for- 
bids the idea that he can have learned anything from 
Descartes. It is probable that while on his early em- 
bassy in France he came under the same intellectual in- 
fluences which suggested to Descartes his views. Frag- 
ments of knowledge and partial solutions derived from 
older philosophies exist before a great thinker like Des- 
cartes embodies them in a system. Herbert may have 
been led by the indirect effect of such influences to a 
theory of innate ideas, independently of Descartes ; or 
he may have arrived at it by reaction against the Pyr- 
rhonism of some of the French writers of the preceding 
age, such as Montaigne, with whose writings he was 
familiar. 

Flis works furnish his views en knowledge and on 
religion, both natural, heathen, and Christian. They 
include a treatise on truth, which suggested another on 
the cause of errors. The views on religion therein 
named, further suggested one on the religion which 
could be expected in a layman, and this again a critique 
on heathen creeds, written to show the universality of 
the beliefs so described. 8 

In discussing truth 9 he surveys the powers of the 
human mind, and places the ultimate test of it in the 
natural instincts or axiomatic beliefs. 



7 Herbert (158-1-1648). His works were, BeVcritate, 1-624, Be Gauds 
Erromtm, 1645, Be Religione Laici, Be Religione Gentilium, 1663. An 
autobiography was published in 1764. He was answered by Locke 
(Reason, of Christianity), Baxter, Halyburton, Leland (Bcists, lett. 1 and 
2), and Kortholt ; and his philosophy was attacked by Gassendi. On Her- 
bert see Bitter's Christliche Philosopliie, vi. 390 seq. ; Tennemann's Gesch. 
x. 113 seq. ; Eichhorn's Gesch. der Lit. 6, 95 seq.; Hallam's History of 
Literature, ii. 380 seq. ; and Lechler's Gesehichte des Englischen Beiwmis, 
p. 36-54 ; Bemusat in Rev. des Beux Mondes, 1854, vol. iii. His views in 
some respects seem to have resembled those of Pecock or Sebonde. ' 

8 In its mode of treatment it has been compared to Bacon's Wisdom of 
the Ancients. 

' In the Be Vcriiaie. 



120 LECTURE TV. 

ingly become the test of a religion. The true religion 
must therefore be a universal one ; that is, one of which 
the evidence commends itself to the universal mind of 
man, and finds its attestation in truth intuitively per- 
ceived. Of such truths he enumerates five : 10 — the ex- 
istence of one supreme God ; the duty of worship ; piety 
and virtue as the means thereof ; the efficacy of repent- 
ance ; the existence of rewards and punishments both 
here and hereafter. These he regards as the funda- 
mental pillars of universal religion ; and distinguishes 
from these realities the doctrines of what he calls par- 
ticular- religions, one of which is Christianity, as being 
uncertain, because not self-evident ; and accordingly 
considers that no assent can be expected in a layman, 
save to the above-named self-evident truths. His view 
however of revelation is not very clear. Sometimes 
he seems to admit it, sometimes proscribes it as uncer- 
tain. His object seems not to have been primarily de- 
structive, but merely the result of attempts to discover 
truth amid the jarring opinions of the churches of his 

da y-" 

The ideas which his writings contributed to deist 
speculation are two; viz., the examination of the uni- 
versal principles of religion, and the appeal to an inter- 
nal illuminating influence superior to revelation, " the 
inward light," as the test of religious truth. This was 
a phrase not uncommon in the seventeenth century. It 
was used by the Puritans to mark the appeal to the 
spiritual instincts, the heaven-taught feelings ; and later 
by mystics, like the founder of the Quakers, to imply 
an appeal to an internal sense. 12 But in Herbert it 
differs from these in being universal, not restricted to a 
few persons, and in being intellectual rather than emo- 
tional or spiritual. It was not analysed so as to sepa- 
rate intuitional from reflective elements, and seems to 

10 I)e Relig, Gentil, 15. 199. App. to Relig. Laici, 2, 3. 

11 There is a curious record in bis journal {Autobiography ',' p. 171-3) 
of an earnest prayer for guidance on the subject of the publication of his 
first book De Veritate, which he no doubt saw was opposed to popular 
belief. 

12 Lechler, Gesehichte dcs E. D. p. 61. 



LECTURE IV. 121 

have been analogous to Descartes' ultimate appeal to 
the natural reason, the self-evidencing force of the men- 
tal axioms. 13 

If it was the anxiety to find certainty in controver- 
sies concerning . theological dogmas, which suggested 
Herbert's inquiries, it was the struggle of ecclesiastical 
parties in connexion with political movements which 
excited those of Hobbes. 14 

In his philosophical views he belonged to an oppo- 
site school to Herbert. A disciple of Bacon, he was 
the first to apply his master's method to morals, and 
to place the basis of ethical and political obliga- 
tion in experience ; and in the application of these 
philosophical principles to religion, he also represented 
the contrary tendency to Herbert, state interference in 
contradistinction from private liberty, political religion 
as opposed to personal. The contest of individualism 
against multitudinism is the parallel in politics to that 
of private judgment against authority in religion. 
While some of the Puritans were urging unlimited 
license in the matter of religion, Hobbes wrote to prove 
the necessity of state control, and the importance of a 
fulcrum on which individual opinion might repose, ex- 
ternal to itself; and referring the development of socie- 

13 Because they bear, as he thought, the great test of being self- 
evident. It will be remembered that the clearness of an idea was the test 
of the innate character of it in Descartes' system {Principia Philosophic, 
§ 10). Such ideas are those which would be regarded in Kant's system 
as necessary forms of thinking, and in Cousin's as belonging to the im- 
personal reason. 

14 Hobbes (1588-1679). The Leviathan is a philosophy of society, 
studied as the development of the individual. He first treats of the in- 
dividual, book i. ; then the commonwealth, book ii. ; then the Christian 
commonwealth, book iii. ; and the kingdom of error, book iv. ; borrowing 
the idea from Augustin's Be Civ. Dei. .The brevity of the notice in the 
text prevents the possibility of doing justice to the grandeur and to the 
good sense shown in many respects in Hobbes's works. He was answered 
by Cudworth {Intellectual System) ; Cumberland {Be Leg. Nat.) ; Dr. Seth 
Ward ; Bramhall, (1658) •; Archbp. Tenison, 1760; and Lord Clarendon, in 
his Survey of Leviathan (1676). For an explanation and criticism on his 
philosophical principles, see Ritter, ch. vi. 453 seq. ; Tennemann, b. x. 53 
seq. ; Lewes' History of Philosophy ; Morell's Id.; Hall am, b. ii. 463 
seq. ; and on his religious opinions, Leland (ch. hi.), and Lechler (p. 67- 



107). 



G 



122 LECTUEE IV. 

ty to the necessity for restraining the natural selfishness 
of man, and resolving right into expedience as embodied 
in the sovereign head, he ended with crushing the rights 
of the individual spirit, and defending absolute govern- 
ment. 

The effect of the application of such a sensational 
and materialist theory to religion will be anticipated. 
He traced 15 the genesis of it in the individual, and its 
expression in society ; finding the origin of it in selfish 
fear of the supernatural. The same reason which led 
him to assign supremacy to government in other depart- 
ments induced him to give it supreme control over re- 
ligion. Society being the check on man's selfishness, 
and supreme, deciding all questions on grounds of gen- 
eral expedience ; the authority of the commonwealth 
became the authority of the church. 36 Though he had 
occasion to discuss revelation and the canon 17 as a rule 
of faith, yet it is hard to Hx on any point that was ac- 
tual unbelief. 

The amount of thought contributed by him to deism 
was small ; for his influence on his successors was unim- 
portant. The religious instincts of the heart were too 
strong to be permanently influenced by the cold mate- 
rialist tone which reduced religion to state craft. With 
the exception of Coward, 18 a materialist who doubted 
immortality about the end of the century, the succeed- 
ing deists more generally followed Herbert, in wishing 
to elevate religion to a spiritual sphere, than Hobbes, 
who degraded it to political expedience. A slight ad- 
ditional interest however belongs to his speculations, 
from the circumstance that his ideas, together with 

15 Part i. c. 12. 
lfi Part iii. c. 39. 

17 Part iii. c. S3. 

18 Coward (165T— 1*724 circ.) was a physician, who wrote in 1702 
Second Tlwughts on Human Souls, apparently intended to disprove the 
existence of spirit and natural immortality, but not of immortality itself 
as a divine gift from God to man, though opponents disbelieved him in 
this assertion. The list of answers written is given in Chalmers's Biogra- 
phical Dictionary under Coward. The house of commons in 1704 cod- 
demned the book, and caused it to be burned. 



LECTURE rv. 123 

those of Herbert, most probably suggested some parts 
of the system of Spinoza. JU 

The two writers of whom we have now been treat- 
ing, lived prior to or during the Commonwealth. From 
the date of the Restoration the existence of doubt may 
be accepted as an established fact. During the reaction, 
political and ecclesiastical, which ensued in the early 
part of the reign of Charles II, it is not surprising that 
doubt concealed itself in retirement ; but the frequent 
allusions to it under the name of atheism, 20 in contem- 
])orary sermons and theological books, proves its exist- 
ence. Indeed the reaction contained the very elements 
which were likely to foster unbelief among uncliscerning 
minds. The court set a sad example of impurity ; and 
the excessive claims of the churchmen, alien to the spirit 
of political and religious liberty, were calculated to gen- 
erate an antipathy to the clergy and to religion. 

Toward the end of Charles's reign, a feeling of this 
kind expresses itself in the writings of Charles Blount, 21 
who availed himself of the temporary interval in which 
the press became free, owing to the omission to renew 
the act which submitted works to the censor, 22 to pub- 
lish with notes a translation of Philostratus's Life of 
Apollonius of Tyana, with the same purpose as Hiero- 
cles in the fourth century, to disguise the peculiar char- 
acter of Christ's miracles, and draw an invidious par- 
allel between the Pythagorean philosopher and the 
divine founder of Christianity. Subsequently to 
Blount's death, his friend Gildon, who lived to retract 
his opinions, 23 published a collection of treatises, entitled 

19 Spinoza's view of religion is the part suggested by Herbert, an,d Lis 
view of the relation of the state to religion that suggested bv Hobbes. 

20 See Note 21 (p. 413). 

21 C. Blount (1654-93) wrote the Anima Mundi, 16*79 ; Life of Apol- 
lonius Tyana, 1680; Oracles of Reason, 1695. (See Macaulay, History of 
England, vol. iv. 352.) He was refuted by Nichols (1*723) Conference 
vi:ilh a Theist. See Lechler (114-124), and Leland, ch. iv. 

22 The Licensing Act of 1662 concerning the press was allowed to ex- 
pire in 1679. .When James II. came to the throne (1685) the censorship 
was renewed for seven years ; and again in 1693 was revived for two years, 
at which time it finally expired. See North British Review, No. 60, (Hay 
1859.) 23 As proved by his work. in 1*705, Tite DeisVs Manual. 



124 LECTURE IV. 

" The Oracles of Beason ;" a work which, may he con- 
sidered as expressing the opinions of a little hand of 
unbelievers, of whom Blount was one. 24 The mention 
of two of the papers in it will explain the views in- 
tended. One is on natural religion,' 25 in which the ideas 
of Herbert are reproduced, and exception is taken to 
revelation as partial and not self-evident, and therefore 
uncertain ; and the objections to the sufficiency and 
potency of natural religion are refuted. A second is 
on the deist's religion," in which the deist creed is ex- 
plained to be the belief in a God who is to be worship- 
ped, not by sacrifice, nor by mediation, but by piety. 
Punishment in a future world is denied as incompatible 
with Divine benevolence ; and the safety of the deist 
creed is supported by showing that a moral life is supe- 
rior to belief in mysteries. It will be seen from these 
remarks that Blount hardly makes an advance on his 
deist predecessor Herbert, save that his view is more 
positive, and his antipathy to Christian worship less 
concealed. 

At the close of the seventeenth century two new 
influences were in operation, the one political, the other 
intellectual ; viz., the civil and religious liberty which 
ensued on the revolution, generating free speculation, 
and compelling each man to form his political creed ; 
and the reconsideration of the first principles of knowl- 
edge 37 implied in the philosophy of Locke. 28 

24 The Oracles of Reason (1693) consists of sixteen papers in several 
letters to Mr. Hobbes and others, by Ch. Blount, Gildon, and others. Papers 
(No. 1-4) are a defence of T. Burnet's archaeology, or on subjects cognate 
to it. No. 5 is concerning the deist's religion ; G on immortality ; 1 on 
Arians, Trinitarians, and Councils ; 8 that felicity is pleasure ; 9 of fate 
and fortune; 10 of the original of the Jews; 11 of the lawfulness of mar- 
rying two sisters successively; 12 of the subversion of Judaism, and the 
origin of the Millennium ; 13 of the auguries of the ancients ; 14 of natural 
religion ; 15 that the soul is matter; 16 that the world is eternal. 

25 No. 14. 2fl No. 5. 

27 Attention had been called a little earlier to the consideration of the 
first principles of religion, by the Platonizing Cambridge party of More 
and Cudworth, followers partly of Descartes. See Burnet's Mem. of //is 
Times, i. 18V ; ana " the Rev. A. Taylor's able introduction to the edition 
of Simon Patrick's Works, Oxford 1858, (p. 28-42). 

2b On Locke's philosophy see Bitter Chr. Phil, vii 449-534 ; Cousin's 



LECTURE IV. 125 

The effect cf these new influences on religion is very 
marked. Controversies no longer turned upon ques- 
tions in which the appeal lay to the common ground of 
scripture, as in the contest which Churchmen had con- 
ducted against Puritans or Romanists, hut extended to 
the examination of the first principles of ethics or poli- 
tics ; such as the foundation of government, whether it 
depends on hereditary right or on compact, as in the 
controversy against the nonjurors 29 before the close of 
the century ; or the spiritual rights of the church, and 
the right of every man to religious liberty and private 
judgment in religion, as in the Convocation and Ban- 
gorian 30 controversy, which marked the early years of 
the next century. The very diminution also of quota- 
tions of authorities is a pertinent illustration that the 
appeal was now being made to deeper standards. 

The philosophy of Locke, which attempted to lay a 
basis for knowledge in psychology, coincided with, 
where it did not create, this general attempt to appeal 
on every subject to ultimate principles of reason. This 
tone in truth marked the age, and acting in every re- 
gion of thought, affected alike the orthodox and the 
unbelieving. Accordingly, as we pass away from the 
speculations which mark the early period of deism to 
those which belong to its maturity, we find that the 
attack on Christianity is less suggested by political con- 
siderations, and more entirely depends on an appeal to 
reason, intellectual or moral. 

The principal phases belonging to this period of the 
maturity of deism, which we shall now successively en- 
counter, are four : 

Hist, de Philos. au lBe siecle, ch. 15-25; NorelVs Hist, of Phil., vol. i. 
p. 100 seq. ; Lewes Id. ; Lechler, 151-1 79. His work the Reasonableness 
of Christianity typified the tone of the writers on the Christian evidences 
for the next half century. 

29 For this and the next named controversy, see Lathbury's Non-Jurors 
(1815), ch. iv., and History of Convocation, ch. 12-14. 

30 On the Bangorian controversy (17 17, 18), seeHallam's Constitutional 
History (vol. ii. 408). A list of the pamphlets which were written during 
the controversy was made by the antiquarian Thomas Hearne, and is 
printed in Hoadley's works (3 vols. fol. 1773). See vol. ii. 381, and the 
continuation in vol. i. 689. 



126 LECTURE IV. 

(1) An examination of the first principles of religion, 
on its dogmatic or theological side, with a view of 
asserting the supremacy of reason to interpret all mys- 
teries, and defending absolute toleration of free thought. 
This tendency is seen in Toland and Collins, 

(2) An examination of religion on the ethical. side 
occurs, with the object of asserting the supremacy of 
natural ethics as a rule of conduct, and denying the 
motive of reward or punishment implied in dependent 
morality. This is seen in Lord Shaftesbury. 

After the attack has thus been opened against re- 
vealed religion, by creating prepossessions against mys- 
tery in dogma and the existence of religious motives in 
morals, there follows a direct approach against the out- 
works of it by an attack on the evidences, 

(3) In an examination, critical rather than philo- 
sophical, of the prophecies of the Old Testament by 
Collins, and of the miracles of the New by Woolston. 

The deist next approaches as it were within the for- 
tress, and advances against the doctrines of revealed 
religion ; and we find accordingly, 

(4) A general view of natural religion, in which the 
various differences, — speculative, moral, and critical, 
are combined, as in Tindal ; or with a more especial 
reference to the Old Testament as in Morgan, and the 
New as in Chubb ; the aim of each being constructive 
as well as destructive ; to point out the absolute suffi- 
ciency of natural religion and of the moral sense as re- 
ligious guides, and the impossibility of accepting as 
obligatory that which adds to or contradicts them ; and 
accordingly they point out the elements in Christianity 
which they consider can be retained as absolutely true. 

The first two of these attacks occur in the first two 
decades of the century : the two latter in the period 
from 1720 to 1740, when the public mind not being 
diverted by foreign war or internal sedition, and other 
controversies being closed, the deist controversy was at 
its height. After examining these, other tendencies 
will meet us, when we trace the decline of deism in Bo- 
lingbroke and Hume. 



LECTTJKE IV. 127 

The first of these tendencies just noticed is seen in 
Toland, 31 who directed his speculations to the ground 
principles of revealed theology, 32 and slightly to the his- 
tory of the Canon. 33 

Possessing much originality and learning, at an 
early age, in 1696, just a year after the censorship had 
been finally removed and the press of England made 
permanently free, he published his noted work, " Chris- 
tianity not Mysterious," to show that " there is nothing 
in the Gospels contrary to reason, nor above it ; and 
that no Christian doctrine can properly be called a mys- 
tery." The speculations of all doubters first originate 
in some crisis of personal or mental history, In To- 
land's case it was probably the change of religion from 
catholic to protestant which first unsettled his religious 
faith. The work just named, in which he expressed 
the attempt to bring religious truth under the grasp of 
the intellect, was one of some merit as a literary produc- 
tion, and written with that clearness which the influence 
of the French models studied by Dry den had introduced 
into English literature. Yet it is difficult to understand 
why a single work of an unknown student should attract 
so much public notice. The grand jury of Middlesex 
was induced at once to present it as a nuisance, and the 
example was followed by the grand jury of Dublin. 34 
Two years after its publication the Irish parliament 

31 Toland (1669-1722). He was born an Irish catholic, turned protes- 
tant, wrote his first deist book, 1696; fled for refuge to the court of 
Hanover, and found protection there ; wrote political pamphlets, and lived 
abroad till near the close of his life. His chief theological writings are, 
Christianity not Mysterious, 1696; Amyntor, or Defence of the Life of 
Milton, 1699 (on the Canon); Nazarenns, 1718; Tetradymus, 1720; Pan- 
theisticon, 1720, sive formula celebrandge sodalitatis Socratica?, 1720, a 
parody on the Christian service books. These are collected in his Miscel- 
laneous Works (1726). (Vol. i. contains his translation of the Spaccio of 
Bruno.) He was answered by John Norris, Archbp. Synge, and Dr. Peter 
Browne ; by S. Clarke, and by Jones in his work on the Canon. Consult 
Leland'sFiew of Deistical Writers, Lett. iv. ; Lechler (180-210), and (463- 
73), and note on p. 193. 

32 In his Christianity not Jfystcrious. 

33 In his Amyntor. 

34 For these facts see the Memoir of Toland prefixed to his Miscellaneous 
Works, and also Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary. 



128 LECTUKE IV. 

deliberated upon it, and, refusing to hear Toland in 
defence, passed sentence that the book should be burnt, 
and its author imprisoned — a fate which he escaped 
only by flight. 36 And in 1701, no less than five years 
after the publication of his work, a vote for its prosecu- 
tion passed the lower house of the English convocation, 
which the legal advisers however denied to be within 
the power of that assembly. 36 Toland spent most of the 
remainder of his life abroad, and showed in his subse- 
quent works a character growing gradually worse, 
lashed into bitterer opposition by the censure which he 
had received. 

His views, developed in his work, Christianity not 
Mysterious, require fuller statement. He opens with 
an explanation of the province of reason, 37 the means, of 
information, external and internal, which man pos- 
sesses ; a part of his work which is valuable to the phi- 
losopher, who watches the influence exercised at that 
time by psychological speculations ; and he proposes to 
show that the doctrines of the gospel are neither con- 
trary to reason nor above it. He exhibits the impossi- 
bility of believing statements which positively contradict 
reason ; 3b and contends that if they do not really contra- 
dict it, but are above it, we can form no intelligible idea 
of them. He tries further to show that reason is neither 
so weak nor so corrupt as to be an unsafe guide, 39 and 
that scripture itself only professes to teach what is in- 
telligible. 40 Having shown that the doctrines of the 
gospel are not contrary to reason, he next proceeds to 
show that they do not profess to be above it ; that they 
lay claim to no mystery, 41 for that mystery in heathen 



35 This opposition increased Toland's bitterness, for, in the following 
year, 1G98, in publishing a Life of Milton, and taking occasion to disprove 
that Charles I was the author of the Ikon Basilike, he threw out hints of 
similar forgeries in works attributed to the apostles. The hatred of church- 
men was further increased by this work. 

36 See Wilkins's Concilia, vol. iv. 631 ; Burnet's History of his own 
Times, vol. iv. 521 ; Lathbury's History of Convocation (1842), p. 288 seq. 

37 Sect. I. 

38 Sect. ii. ch. 1. 39 Id. ch. 4. 40 Ch. 1, 2. 
*' Sect. iii. ch. 2. 



LECTURE IV. 129 

writers and the New Testament does not mean some- 
thing inconceivable, but something intelligible in itself, 
which nevertheless was so veiled that it needed reveal- 
ing ; 4a and that the introduction of the popular idea of 
mystery was attributable to the analogy of pagan writers, 
and did not occur till several centuries after the founda- 
tion of Christianity. 43 

It is possible that the book may have been a mere 
paradox, 44 the effort of a young mind going through the 
process through which all young men of thought pass, 
and especially in an age like Toland's, of trying to un- 
derstand and explain what they believe. But students 
who are thus forming their views ought to pause before 
they scatter their half-formed opinions in the world. 
In Toland's case public alarm judged the book to hai T e 
a most dangerous tendency ; and he was an outcast from 
the sympathy of pious men for ever. If he was misun- 
derstood, as he contended, his fate is a warning against 
the premature publication of a paradox. The question 
accordingly which Toland thus suggested for discussion 
was the prerogative of reason to pronounce on the con- 
tents of a revelation, the problem whether the mind 
must comprehend as well as apprehend all that it be- 
lieves. The other question which he opened was the 
validity of the canon. 45 Here too he claimed that his 
views were misunderstood. It was supposed that the 
mention made by him concerning spurious works at- 
tributed to the apostles, referred to the canonical gos- 
pels. Accordingly, if in his former work he has been 
considered to have anticipated the older school of Ger- 

42 Ch. 3. 43 Ch. 5. 

44 Cfr. his Apology for Christianity not 3Tystcrio?is 1G9V, and also a 
letter from Mr. Mclyneux to Locke (Locke's Works, ed. 1723, vol. iii. 
p. 566), quoted in the memoir (p. 17) prefixed to Toland's Miscellaneous 

Works. 

45 In his Life of Milton (1698) pp. 91, 92, lie had alluded to works falsely 
attributed to Christ and the apostles. This was attacked by Blackhall as 
if intended against the canonical scriptures, and was defended by Toland 
by the publication of the A?nyntor, a catalogue of books mentioned by the 
fathers as truly or falsely ascribed to Jesus Christ, his apostles, &c. The 
learned Pfaff calls it "insignem Catalogum" [Diss. Crit. Nov. Test. ch. i. 
§2). 



130 LECTURE IV. 

man rationalists, in the present he has been thought to 
have touched upon the questions discussed in the mod- 
ern critical school. The controversy which ensued was 
the means of opening up the discussion of the great 
question which relates to the ISTew Testament canon, 
viz., whether our present New Testament books are a 
selection made in the second century from among early 
Christian writings, or whether the church from the first 
regarded them as distinct in kind and not merely in 
degree from other literature ; whether the early respect 
shown for scripture was reverence directed to apostolic 
men, or to their inspired teaching. 

If Toland is the type of free speculation applied to 
the theoretical side of religion, lord Shaftesbury 46 is an 
example of speculations on the practical side of it, and 
on the questions which come under .the province of 
ethics. 

The rise of an ethical school parallel with discussions 
on the philosophy of religion is one of the most interest- 
ing features of that age, whether it be regarded in a 
scientific or a religious point of view. The age was one 
in which the reflective reason or understanding was 
busy in exploring the origin of all knowledge. The 
department of moral and spiritual truth could not long 
remain unexamined. In an earlier age the sources of 
our knowledge concerning the divine attributes and 
human duty had been supposed to depend upon revela- 
tion ; but now the disposition to criticise every subject 
by the light of common sense claimed that philosophy 
must investigate them. Reason was to work out the 
system of natural theology, and ethics the problem of 
the nature and ground of virtue. Hence it will be ob- 
vious how close a relation existed between such specula- 
tions and theology. The Christian apologist availed 
himself of the new ethical inquiries as a corroboration 
of revealed religion ; the Deist, as a substitute for it. 

48 A Memoir of Lord Shaftesbury (1671-1713), has been lately publish- 
ed (1860). His chief work was the Characteristics. On his religious views 
see Leland eh. 5 and 6 ; Lcchler 243-265; and on his philosophical views, 
see Ritter vii. 535 scq. ; Eichhorn, Gcschichic der Literatur, vi. 424 scq. 



LECTURE IV. 131 

Lord Shaftesbury is usually adduced as a deist of 
rhis class. He has not indeed expressed it definitely in 
his writings ; and an ethical system which formed the 
basis of Butler's sermons, 47 cannot necessarily be charged 
with deism. But the charge can be substantiated from 
his memoirs ; and his writings manifest that hatred 
of clerical influence, the wish to subject the church to 
the state, which will by some persons be regarded as 
unbelief, but which was not perhaps altogether sur- 
prising in an age when the clergy were almost univer- 
sally alien to the revolution, and the Convocation mani- 
fested opposition to political and religious liberty. The 
ground on which the charge is generally founded is, 
that Shaftesbury has cast reflections on the doctrine of 
future rewards and punishments. 48 It is to be feared 
that sceptical insinuations were intended ; yet his re- 
marks admit of some explanation as a result of his par- 
ticular point of view. 

The ethical schools of his day were already two ; the 
one advocating dependent, the other independent mo- 
rality ; the one grounding obligation on self-love, the 
other on natural right. Shaftesbury, though a disciple 
of Locke, belonged to the latter school. His works 
mark the moment when this ethical school was passing 
from the objective inquiry into the immutability of 
right, as seen in Clarke, to the subjective inquiry into 
the reflex sense which constitutes our obligation to do 
what is right, as seen in Butler. The depreciation ac- 
cordingly of the motives of reward, as distinct from the 
supreme motive of loving duty for duty's sake, was to 
be expected in his system. The motives of reward and 
punishment which form the sanctions of religious obli- 
gation, would seem to him to be analogous to the em- 
ployment of expedience as the foundation of moral. 
His statements however appear to be an exaggeration 
even in an ethical view, as well as calculated to insinu- 

41 On his moral system, see Mackintosh's Dissertation on Ethics, p. 
158-166 ; and on Butler's ethical system, and its relation to Shaftesbury, 
see the same work, p. 171 seq. . 

48 Works, vol. ii. Inquiry concerning Virtue. Charact. ii. 272 etc. 



132 LECTURE IV. 

ate erroneous ideas in a theological. It is possible that 
his motive was not polemical ; but the unchristian char- 
acter of his tone renders the hypothesis improbable, and 
explains the reason why his essays called the " Charac- 
teristics " have been ranked among deist writings. • 

We have seen, in Toland and Shaftesbury respect- 
ively, a discussion on the metaphysical and ethical basis 
of religion, together with a few traces of the rise of 
criticism in reference to the canon. In their successors 
the inquiry becomes less psychological and more criti- 
cal, and therefore less elevated by the abstract nature 
of the speculative above the struggle of theological po- 
lemic. 

Two branches of criticism were at this time com- 
mencing, which were destined to suggest difficulties 
alike to the deist and to the Christian ; the one the dis- 
covery of variety of readings in the sacred text, the 
other the doubts thrown upon the genuineness and au- 
thenticity of the books. It was the large collection of 
various readings on the New Testament, first begun by 
Mills, 49 which gave the impulse to the former, which 
has been called the lower criticism, and which so dis- 
tressed the mind of Bengel, that he spent his life in 
allaying the alarm of those who like himself felt alarmed 
at its effect on the question of verbal inspiration. And 
it was the disproof of the genuineness of the Epistles of 
Phalaris by the learned Bentley, 00 . which first threw 
solid doubts on the value attaching to traditional titles 
of books, and showed the irrefragable character belong- 
ing to an appeal to internal evidence ; a department 
which has been called the higher criticism. This latter 
branch, so abundantly developed in German specula- 

49 The readings of the text had been disturbed by Courcelles (1658), 
and bv Walton in his Polyglot, which caused an alarm, on which see Hody 
{De Bibl. Text. 503 seq.),* but not widely till Mills, 1707. Mills' readings 
were attacked by Whitby in 1710, and the arguments of the latter were 
afterwards turned by Collins against Revelation. 

50 In 1699. Daille's criticism on the Ignatian Epistles (1666) had 
shown similar sagacity to that afterwards displayed by Bentley, and bore 
to his inquiries the same relation which those just named in the text bore 
to those of Mills. 



LECTURE IV. 133 

tion, is only hinted at by the English deists of the eight- 
eenth age, as by Hobbes and Spinoza earlier ; but we 
shall soon see the nse which Collins and others made of 
the former inquiry. 

The form, though not the spirit, of Toland and 
Shaftesbury, might by a latitude of interpretation be 
made compatible with Christianity ; but Collins and 
Woolston, of whom we next treat, mark a much further 
advance of free thought. They attack what has always 
been justly considered to be an integral portion of 
Christianity, the relation which it bore to Jewish 
prophecy, and the miracles which were wrought for its 
establishment. 

Collins 51 must be studied under more than one 
aspect. He not only wrote on the logic of religion, the 
method of inquiry in theology, but also on the subject 
of scripture interpretation, and the reality of proph- 
ecy." 

It was in 1713 that he published " A discourse of 
free-thinking, occasioned by the rise and growth of a 
sect called Free-thinkers." This is one of the first 
times that we find this new name used for Deists ; and 
the object of his book is to defend the propriety of un- 
limited liberty of inquiry, a proposition by which he 
designed the unrestrained liberty of belief, not in a 
political point of. view merely, but in a moral. His 
argument was not unlike more modern ones,' 3 which 
show that civilization and improvement have been 
caused by free-thinking ; and he adduces the growing 
disbelief in the reality of witchcraft, in proof of the way 
in which the rejection of dogma had ameliorated politi- 

61 Collins (1676-1729). His works were on Immortality (1707, 8) in 
the Dodwell controversy; Frecthinking, 1713, refuted entirely by Bentley 
in the Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. (See also Dr. Ibbot's Boyle Lectures, 
1713, where the general subject is treated.) On Necessity, 1715. The 
Grounds of the Christian Religion, 1724 (occasioned by Whiston's work 
on Prophecy) ; answered by bishop Chandler, Samuel Chandler, T. Sher- 
lock, and Moses Lowman; Scheme of Literal Prophecy, 1727, in answer 
to Chandler. See Leland, ch. vii., and Lechler, 217-240. Henke's 
Kirchengeschichte, yi. s. 29. 

52 In the two works named below in the text. 

53 E. g. that of Buckle in History of Civilization. 



134: LECTUEE IV. 

cal science, which until recently had visited the sup- 
posed crime with the punishment of death. 54 After 
thus showing the duty of free-thinking, 55 he argued 
that the sphere of it ought to comprehend points on 
wmich the right is usually denied ; such as the divine 
attributes, the truth of the scriptures, and their mean- 
ing ; 56 establishing this by laying a number of charges 
against priests, to show that their dogmatic teaching 
cannot be trusted, unchallenged by free inquiry, on ac- 
count of their discrepant 57 opinions, their rendering the 
canon and text of scripture uncertain, 58 and their pious 
frauds ; 59 concluding by refuting objections against free- 
thinking derived from its supposed want of safety. 60 

The book met with intelligent and able opponents ; 
the critical part, containing the allegations of uncer- 
tainty in the text of scripture, and the charge of alter- 
ing it, being effectually refuted by Bentley. The work 
is an exaggeration of a great truth. Undoubtedly free 
inquiry is right in all departments, but it must be re- 
strained within the proper limits which the particular 
subject-matter admits of; — limits which are determined 
partly by the nature of the subject studied, partly by 
the laws of the thinking mind. 

Eleven years afterwards, in 1724, Collins published 
liis " Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the 
Christian religion." This work is chiefly critical. . It 
does not merely contain the incipient doubts on the 
variety of readings, and the uncertainty of books, but 
spreads over several provinces of theological inquiry. 
Under the pretence of establishing Christianity on a 
more solid foundation, the author argues that our Sa- 
viour and his apostles made the whole proof of Chris- 
tianity to rest solely on the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment ;" that if these proofs are valid, Christianity is 
established ; if invalid, it is false. 02 Accordingly he ex- 
amines several of the prophecies cited from the Old 

64 P. 71. 55 P. 5-27. 66 P." 32, &c. 

67 P. 56. 5a P. 86. 69 P. 92. 

60 P. 100, &c. 

fil Part i. S 1-5 c2 Id. 8 6, 7. 



LECTURE IV. 135 

Testament in the Xew in favonr of the Messiahship of 
Christ, with a view of showing that they are only alle- 
gorical or fanciful proofs, accommodations of the mean- 
ing of the prophecies ; and anticipates the objections 
which could be stated to his views. 63 He asserts that 
the expectation of a Messiah among 64 the Jews arose 
only a short time before Christ's coming ; 65 and that the 
apostles put a new interpretation on the Hebrew books, 
which was contrary to the sense accepted by the Jewish 
nation ; that Christianity is not revealed in the Old 
Testament literally, but mystically and allegorically, 
and may therefore be considered as mystical Judaism. 
His inference is accordingly stated as an argument in 
favour of the figurative or mystical interpretation of 
scripture ; but we can hardly doubt that his real object 
was an ironical one, to exhibit Christianity as resting on 
apostolic misinterpretations of Jewish prophecy, and 
thus to create the impression that it was a mere Jewish 
sect of men deceived by fanciful interpretations. 

The work produced considerable alarm ; more from 
the solemn interest and sacredness of the inquiries which 
it opened, than from any danger arising from excellence 
in its form, or ability in the mode of putting. It antici- 
pated subsequent speculations, 66 by regarding Christian- 
ity as true ideally, not historically, and by insinuating 
the incorrectness of the apostolic adoption of the mys- 
tical system of interpreting the ancient scripture. 

A writer came forward as moderator 67 between Col- 
lins and his opponents, who himself afterwards became 

63 Id. 11. 64 Id. (8-10.) 

65 Two other writers, Mandeville and Lyons, have been omitted ; Man- 
deville (Fables of the Bees, 1723), because his speculations did not bear 
directly on religion ; Lyons, because his work is not important. In 1*723 
he published the Infallibility of Human Judgment, in which he analysed 
the mind, and applied the results of his analysis to the first principles of 
natural religion, and to discredit the evidences and doctrines of revealed. 
It bears more resemblance to Toland and Chubb than to any other writers, 
but is a feeble work, interesting only as showing the prevalence of psycho- 
logical inquiries, and the tendency to examine psychologically the subject 
of religion. 

66 E. g. Some of those in Germany, see Lect. YI and VII. 

c7 In the Moderator, or controversy between the author of the Grounds, 
d'c. and his reverend opponents, 1727. (Woolston's Works, vol. v.) 



136 LECTURE IV. 

still more noted, by directing an attack on miracles, 
similar to that of Collins on prophecy ; — the unhappy 
Woolston. 68 A fellow of a college 69 at Cambridge, in 
holy orders, he was for many years a diligent student 
of the fathers, and imbibed from them an extravagant 
attachment to the allegorical sense of scripture. Find- 
ing that his views met with no support in that reason- 
ing age, he broke out into unmeasured insult and con- 
tempt against his brother clergy, as slaves to the letter 
of scripture. 70 Deprived of his fellowship, 71 and dis- 
tracted by penury, he extended his hatred from the 
ministers to the religion which they ministered. And 
when, in reply to Collins's assertion, that Christianity 
reposed solely on prophecy, the Christian apologists fell 
back on miracles, he wrote in 1727 aud the two fol- 
lowing years his celebrated Discourses on the Mira- 
cles. (22) They were published as pamphlets ; in each 
one of which he examined a few of the miracles of 
Christ, trying to show such inconsistencies as to make 
it- appear that they must be regarded as untrustworthy 
if taken literally ; and hence he advocated a figurative 
interpretation of them ; asserting that the history of the 
life of Jesus is an emblematical representation of his 
spiritual life in the soul of man. 72 The gospels thus 
become a system of mystical theology, instead of a lite- 
ral history. In defence of this method he claimed the 
example of the ancient church, 73 ignoring the fact that 
the fathers admitted a literal as well as a figurative 
meaning. Whether he really retained towards the 
close of his life the spiritual interpretation, 74 or merely 

G8 Woolston, 1669-1733. His works are collected in five volumes, 
with a life prefixed. His pamphlets on Miracles were refuted by bishops 
Fierce, 1729, Gibson, and Smabroke, by Lardner, and by Sherlock in the 
Trial of the Witnesses. On Woolston, see Leland (Let. 8), Lechler 
(289-311), Henke, vi. 49. 

6a Sydney Sussex. 

70 A Free Gift to the Clergy, or the Hireling Priests challenged, 1722, 
( Works, vol. iii.). 

71 See Memoir prefixed to his Works, pp. 5 and 22. 

72 In Discourse iii. 73 Disci. Div. I, 

74 Strauss (Leb. Jes. Introd. § 6) thinks that his bitterness manifests 
that he did not. 



LECTUBE IV. 137 

used it as an excuse for a more secure advance to the 
assault of the historic reality of scripture, is very un- 
certain. 

The letters were written with a coarseness and irrev- 
erence so singular, even in the attacks of that age, that 
it were well if they could be attributed to insanity. 
They contain the most undisguised abuse which had 
been uttered against Christianity since the days of the 
early heathens. Occasionally, when wishing to utter 
grosser blasphemies than were permissible by law, or 
compatible with his assumed Christian stand-point, he 
introduced a Jewish rabbi, as Celsus had formerly done, 
and put the coarser calumnies into his mouth, 75 as diffi- 
culties to which no reply could be furnished except by 
figurative interpretation. The humour which marked 
these pamphlets was so great, that the sale of them was 
immense. Yoltaire, who was in England at the time, 
and perhaps imbibed thence part of his own opinions, 
states the immediate sale to have exceeded thirty thou- 
sand copies ; 76 and Swift describes them as the food of 
every politician. 77 The excitement was so great, that 
Gibson, then bishop of London, thought it necessary to 
direct live pastorals to his diocese in reference to them, 7 * 
and, not content with this, caused Woolston to be prose- 
cuted ; and the unhappy man, not able to pay the fine 
in which he was condemned, continued in prison till his 
death. 79 

In classifying "Woolston with later writers against 
miracles, he may be compared in some cases, though 
with striking differences of tone, with those German 
rationalists like Paulus who have rationalized the mira- 
cles, but in more cases with those who like Strauss have 
idealized them. His method however is an appeal to 
general probability rather than to literary criticism. 

75 Disc. iv. and Defence, sect. i. 

76 Voltaire, (Euvr'es Grit. vol. xlvii. pp. 346-356. 

7 Swift's Poem on his Death, Works, vol. xiv. p. 359. 

78 The latest Pastorals of Gibson are not only against Woolston, but 
other deists also, such as Tindal. 

79 His friends would have found money for the fine ; but Woolston 
could not find securities for his srood behaviour if released. 



138 LECTURE IV. 

The next form that Deism assumed has reference 
more to the internal than the external part, of Chris- 
tianity, the doctrines rather than the evidences. Less 
critical than the last-named tendency, it differs from the 
earlier one of Toland in looking at religion less on the 
speculative side as a revelation of dogma, and more on 
the practical as a revelation of duties. While it com- 
bined into a system the former objections, critical or 
philosophical, the great weapon which it nses is the au- 
thority of the moral reason, by which it both tests reve- 
lation and suggests a substitute in natural religion, thus 
rising it both destructively and for construction. 

Dr. Tindal, 80 the first writer of this class, had early 
given offence to the church by his writings ; but it was 
not till 1730, in his extreme old age, that he published 
his celebrated dialogue, " Christianity as old as the 
Creation, or, the Gospel a Republication of the Religion 
of Nature." This was not only the most important 
work that deism had yet produced, composed with 
care, and bearing the marks of thoughtful study of the 
chief contemporary arguments, Christian as well as De- 
ist, but derives an interest from the circumstance that 
it was the book to which more than to any other single 
work bishop Butler's Analogy was designed as the 
reply. 

Tindal's object is to show that natural religion is 
absolutely perfect, and can admit of no increase so as to 
carry obligation. For this purpose he tries to establish, 
first, that revelation is unnecessary, 81 and secondly, that 
obligation to it is impossible. His argument in favour 
of the first of these two positions is, that if man's per- 
fection be the living according to the constitution of 
human nature, 82 and God's laws with the penalties at- 

80 Matthew Tindal, (1 657-1733), a fellow of All Souls' college, wrote 
in 1706 The Rights of the Christian Church asserted, probably suggested 
by Spinoza's writings, to show that the absolute subjection of the church 
to the state was the only safeguard for public happiness; and in 1730, 
Christianity as old as the Creation, which was answered by Conybeare 
1732, Leland 1733, and by Waterland. The reply of the latter was at- 
tacked by Conyers Middleton. On Tindal, see Lechler, 326-341 ; Leland, 
Lett. 9 ; Ilenke, vi. 57. bl Ch. (i-vi.) « 2 Ch. iii. 



LECTTTKE IV. 139 

taclied be for man's good, 83 nothing being required by 
God for its own sake ; bi then true religion, whether in- 
ternally or externally revealed, having the one end, 
human happiness, must be identical in its precepts." 5 
Having denied the necessity, he then dispntes the possi- 
bility, of revelation, on the ground that the inculcation 
of positive as distinct from moral duties, is inconsistent 
with the good of man, as creating an independent rule. 60 
Assuming the moral faculty to be the foundation of all 
obligation, he reduces all religious truth to moral. It 
is in thus showing the impossibility of any revelation 
save the republication of the law of nature that he no- 
tices many of the difficulties in scripture which form the 
mystery to the theologian, the ground of doubt to the 
objector. Some of these are of a literary character, 
such as the assertion of the failure of the fulfilment of 
prophecies, and of marks of fallibility in the scripture 
writers, like the mistake which he alleges in respect to 
the belief in the immediate coming of Christ." Others 
i of them are moral difficulties, points where the revealed 
system seems to him to contradict our instincts, such as 
the destruction of the Canaanites. 66 In reference to this 
last example, which may be quoted as a type of his 
assertions, he argues against the possibility of a divine 
commission for the act, on the principle . asserted by 
Clarke,* 9 that a miracle can never prove the divine truth 
of a doctrine which contravenes the moral idea of just- 
ice ; or, in more modern phrase, that no supposed mira- 
cle can be a real one, if it attest a doctrine which bears 
this character. In the present work Tindal denied the 
necessity and possibility of a new revelation distinct 
from natural religion. He did not live to complete the 
concluding part of his book, wherein he intended to 
show that all the truths of Christianity were as old as 
the creation ; i. e. were a republication of the religion 
of nature. 

Tindal is an instance of those who have uncon- 
sciously kindled their torch at the light of revelation. 

83 Ch. iv. 84 Ch. v. 65 Ch. vi. 66 Ch. ix-xii. 

67 Ch. xiii. p. 253 seq. « 8 P. 2*72 seq. e0 Ch. xiv. 



140 LECTUEE IV. 

The religion of nature of which lie speaks is a logical 
idea, not an historic fact. The creation of it is analo- 
gous to the mention of the idea of compact as the basis 
of society, a generalization from its present state, not a 
fact of its original history. It is the residuum of Chris- 
tianity when the mysterious elements have been sub- 
tracted. But in adopting the idea, the Deists were on 
the same level as the Christians. Both alike travelled 
together to the end of natural religion. 90 Here the De- 
ist halted, willing to accept so much of Christianity as 
was a republication of the moral law. The Christian, 
on the other hand, found in reason the necessity for 
revelation, and proceeded onward to revealed doctrines 
and positive precepts. 

The works of the two writers Morgan and Chubb in 
part supply the defect left in Tindal, the omission on 
the part of deism to show that Christian truths were a 
republication of natural religion ; the former especially 
attacking the claims of the Jewish religion to be divine, 
the latter the claims of the Christian. 

Morgan's chief work, 91 the " Moral Philosopher," 
was published in 1737. Starting from the moral point 
of view, the sole supremacy and sufficiency of the 
moral law, the writer exhibits the necessity of applying 
the moral test as the only certain criterion on the ques- 
tions of religion, and declines admitting the authority 
of miracles and prophecy to avail against it, 92 an inves- 
tigation suggested partly by the questions just named 
of the ground of unbelief, and partly by the circum- 
stance that the Christian writers were beginning to 
dwell more strongly on the external evidences when 
unbelievers professed the internal to be unsatisfactory. 
The adoption of this test of truth prevents the admission 
of an historic revelation with positive duties. Tie 

90 See the remarks in Essays and Reviews, 1860, p. 272. 

91 Morgan died 1743. His chief work was the Moral Philosopher, 
1737, with two volumes more in reply to opponents. It was refuted by 
L'eland, and the controversy was carried forward in Tracts' which are 
described in Leland's Deists, vol. i. Lett. 11 and 12. See also Lechler, 
370-390; Henke, vi. 70. 

92 Vol. i. p. 86, 06. vol. ii. § I 



LECTUJJE IV. 141 

thinks with Tindal that natural religion is perfect in 
itself, but seems to admit that it is so weak as to need 
republication, 93 which is a greater admission than Tin- 
dal made in his extant volume. When however he 
passes from the decision on the general possibility of 
revelation to particular historic forms, the Mosaic and 
Christian, he discredits both. The infallibility of the 
moral sense is still the canon by which his judgment is 
determined. On this ground he disbelieves the Jewish 
religion, 94 selecting successive passages of the national 
history, such as the sacrifice of Isaac, the oracle of 
Urim, 95 the ceremonial religious system, 96 as the object 
of his attack. A degree of interest attaches to his criti- 
cism on these points, in that it was the means of calling 
forth the celebrated work of Warburton on the Divine 
Legation of Moses. 

The same principles of criticism mislead him in his 
examination of Christianity. The hallowed doctrine of 
the atonement forms a stumblingblock to him, on the 
ground of the transfer of merit by imputation. 97 He 
regards Christianity as a Jewish gospel, until it was 
altered by the apostles, whose authority he discredits by 
arguments not unlike the ancient ones of Celsus. The 
method of Morgan is more constructive than that of his 
predecessors. Not denying the historic element of 
Christianity by idealizing it as Collins, he attempts a 
natural explanation of the historic facts. The central 
thought which guides him throughout is the supreme 
authority of the moral reason. His works open up the 
broad question whether the moral sense is to pronounce 
on revelation or to submit to it, and thus form a fresh 
illustration of the intimate dependence of particular 
sceptical opinions and methods upon metaphysical and 
ethical theories. 

In the period which we are now examining, deism 
was almost entirely confined to the upper classes. It 
was in the latter part of the century that it spread to 
the lower, political antipathy against the church giving 

93 P. 145 seq. ° 4 Vol. i. 9 * Id. p. 272, &c. ii. § 6. 

g6 Id. § 7. 97 Id. § 10. 



14:2 LECTURE IV. 

point to religious unbelief. Chubb, 98 whom we next 
consider, is one of the few exceptions. He was a work- 
ing man, endowed with strong native sense ; who mani- 
fested the same inclination to meddle with the deep 
subject of religion which afterwards marked the charac- 
ter of Thomas Paine and others, who influenced the 
lower orders later in the century. In his general view 
of religion, Chubb denied all particular providence, and 
by necessary consequence the utility of prayer, save for 
its subjective value as having a reflex benefit on the 
human heart." He was undecided as to the fact of the 
existence of a revelation, but seemed to allow its possi- 
bility. 1 He examined the three great forms of religion 
which professed to depend upon a positive revelation, 
Judaism, 2 Mahometanism, and Christianity. The claims 
of the first he wholly rejected, on grounds similar to 
those explained by Morgan, as incompatible with the 
moral character of God. In reference to the second he 
anticipated the modern opinions on Mahometanism, by 
asserting that its victory was impossible, if it had not 
contained truth which the human spirit needed^ In 
examining the third he attacked, like Morgan, the evi- 
dence of miracles 3 and prophecy, 4 and asserted the ne- 
cessity of moral right and wrong as the ground of the 
interpretation of scripture. 

One of his most celebrated works was an explana- 
tion of " the true gospel of Jesus Christ," which is one 
of the many instances which his works afford of the un- 
fairness produced by the want of moral insight into the 

98 T. Chubb (1679-1747), of whom a brief memoir was published 
1747. He was the author of various tracts, of which a list is given in 
Darling's Cyclopaedia Bibliograpldca, 1852. The account of Chubb's 
views given in the text is brief, partly because of their similarity to others 
previously named, and partly because the author has been able to see only 
very few of Chubb's works. But they are explained in Lechler, p, 
343-356, and Leland, ch. 13. Chubb's earlier writings seem to be Socin- 
ian, his later deistical. His best known works are, A Discourse concerning 
Reason, 1731; the True Gospel of Jesus Christ, 1739; and Posthumous 

Works, 2 vols. 1748. ... 

99 Posthumous Works, i. 2S7. 

1 Id. i. 292. 2 Id. ii. sect. 6. ) 

b Posthumous Works, ii. 152. 4 Id. 177, &c. 



lecture rv. 143 

tv oes for which .Christianity supplies a remedy, and into 
the deep adaptation of the scheme of redemption to 
effect the object proposed by a merciful Providence in 
its communication. 5 It will be perceived that the three 
last writers whose systems have been explained, resem- 
ble each other so much as to form a class by themselves. 
They restrict their attack to the internal character of 
revelation, employ the moral rather than the historical 
investigation, embody the chief speculations of their 
predecessors, and offer, as has been already stated, a 
constructive as well as a destructive system ; morality 
or natural religion in place of revealed. 6 

An anonymous work was published in 1744, which 
merits notice as indicating a slight alteration in the 
mode of attack on the part of the deists. It was enti- 
tled, The Resurrection of Jesus considered, and is at- 
tributed to P. Annet, who died in the wretchedness of 
poverty. 7 It was designed in reply to some of the de- 
fences of this subject which the writings of Woolston 
and others had provoked. Its object was to show that 
the writings which record the statement of Christ's pre- 
diction of his own death are a forgery ; that the narra- 
tive of the resurrection is incredible on internal grounds, 
and the variety in the various accounts of it are evi- 
dences of fraud. It indicates the commencement of the 
open allegation of literary imposture as distinct from 
philosophical error, which subsequently marked the crit- 
icism of the French school of infidelity, and affected the 
English unbelievers of the latter half of the century. 

5 Id. i. 22. 
■ c Another work was published anonymously in 1*742, entitled Chris- 
tianity not founded on Argument, supposed to be written by the younger 
Dodwell, son of the learned nonjuror. Its aim is to show that Christianity 
never propagated itself by. argument, but that the evidence of it depends 
upon a personal illumination of each person who believes it. The work 
was supposed to be a satire on Christianity. If earnest, it marked the 
truth that emotional causes are intertwined with intellectual in the forma- 
tion of belief. \ See Lechler, pp. 411-421; Leland, Lett. xi. The book 
of Jasher, published in 1751, is a forgery, written pi-obably by some deist 
(Home's Introduction, vol. ii. part ii. p. 142. ed. 8). 

7 He was imprisoned in the King's Bench, and kept from starvation by 
money from the benevolent archbishop Seeker. He died in 1*768. See 
Lei-hler, pp. S3 3-22; Leland, ch. x. 



144: LECTTJKE IV. 

Deism had now reached its maximum. The atten- 
tion of the age was turned aside from religion to politics 
by the political dangers incident to the attempts of the 
Pretender ; and when Hume's scepticism was promul- 
gated in 1749 it was received without interest, and Bo- 
lingbroke's posthumous writings published in 1754 fell 
comparatively dead. These two names mark the period 
which we called the decline of deism. Bolingbroke's 
views 8 however depict deistical opinions of the period 
when it was at its height, and are a transition into the 
later form seen in Hume, and therefore require to be 
stated first, though posterior in the date of publication. 

Bolingbroke's writings command respect from their 
mixture of clearness of exposition with power of argu- 
ment. They form also the transition to the literature 
of the next age, in turning attention to history. Bo- 
lingbroke had great powers of psychological analysis, 
but he despised the study of it apart from experience. 
His philosophy was a philosophy of history. In his at- 
tacks on revelation we have the traces of the older phi- 
losophical school of deists ; but in the consciousness that 
an historical, not a philosophical, solution must be 
sought to explain the rise of an historical phenomenon 
such as Christianity, he exemplifies the historic spirit 
which was rising, and anticipates the theological in- 
quiry found in Gibbon ; and, in his examination of the 
external historic evidence, both the documents by which 
the Christian religion is attested, and the effects of 
tradition in weakening historic data, he evinces traces 
of the influence of the historical criticism which had 
arisen in France under his friend Pouilly. 9 

His theological writings 10 are in the form of letters, 

s Bolin^brokc (1 678-1 751). See Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth 
Century, vol. i. ch. i. § 3 (transl.) ; Lechler, pp. 396-405 ; Leland, ch. 
22-34. 

9 Oil Pouilly, see Sir C. Lewis, Inquiry into the Credibility of Roman 
History, vol. i. ch. i. p. 5, note. Pouilly published in 1722 his Disserta- 
tion sur V Incertitude et VHistoirc des quatre premiers sieclcs de Rome. 
(See Mhn. de VAcadem. des Inscr., vol. ix.) Beaufort followed out the 
same line of inquiry in 1738. The two writers are considered to have 
laid the basis of the modern historical criticism of ancient history. 

10 They are chiefly, A Letter on one of 1'illotsort's Sermons in vol. hi. 



LECTURE IV. 145 

or of essays, the common form of didactic writings in 
that age. We shall briefly state his views on deity, 
futurity, and revelation. 

He teaches the existence of a deity, hut was led, by 
the sensational philosophy which he adopted from 
Locke, to deny the possibility of an a priori proof of 
the divine existence, 11 and contends strongly that the 
divine attributes can only be known by observation of 
nature, and not by the analogy of man's constitution. 
He considers too that the deity whose existence he has 
thus allowed, exercises a general but not a special prov- 
idence ; 12 the world being a machine moving by dele- 
gated powers without the divine interference. The 
philosophy expressed in Pope's didactic poetry gives 
expression to Bolingbroke's opinions 13 on providence. 

In his views of human duty Bolingbroke refers con- 
duct to self-love as a cause, and to happiness as an end ; 
and doubts a future state, 14 either on the ground of ma- 
terialism, or possibly because his favourite principle, 
that " whatever is, is best," led him to disbelieve the 
argument for a future life adduced from the inequality 
of present rewards. Future punishment is rejected, on 
the ground that it can offer no end compatible with the 
moral object of punishment, which is correction. 

When he passes from natural religion to revealed, 
lie allows the possibility of divine inspiration, bat 

of his works ; the Essays, in vols. ill. and iv. ; viz. Essay 1 on Human 
Knowledge, (2) on Philosophy, (3) on the rise of Monotheism, (4) on 
Authority in Religion ; and Fragments in vol. v. 

11 Vol. iii. Letter on Tillotson, also Letter to Pouilly. 

12 Vol. v. No. 57, 58. 

13 Cfr. Remusat's Angleterre au 18 e Steele i. 22, for remarks on 
Bolingbroke's influence on Pope. The following lines of Pope exactly 
express Bolingbroke's philosophy : 

. " The universal Cause 
Acts not by partial, but by general laws, 
And makes what happiness we justly call, 
Subsist not in the good of one, but all." 

(Ep. iv. 35.) 

14 Instances are to be found in Leland, who discusses his opinions at 
great length. The reader who compares Leland's quotations with Boling- 
broke's works will perhaps think that he has pressed their meaning rather 
far ; but further consideration will show that he has correctly expressed 
Bolingbroke's spirit and purpose. 

7 



146 LECTTJEE IV. 

doubts tlie fact ; rebuking those however who doubt 
things merely because they cannot understand them. 
In criticising the Jewish revelation, 15 he puts no limits 
to his words of severity. He dares to pronounce the 
Jewish history to be repugnant to the attributes of a 
supreme, all-perfect Being. His attack on the records 
is partly on account of the materials contained in them, 
such as the narrative of the fall, the numerical statistics, 
the invasion of the Canaanites, the absence of eternal 
rewards as sanctions of the Mosaic law ; ^nd partly on 
the ground of the evidence being, as he alleges, not nar- 
rated by contemporaries. In giving his opinion of 
Christianity, he repeats the weak objection already used 
by Chubb, of a distinction existing between the gospel 
of Christ and of Paul ; 16 and tries to explain the origin 
of Christianity and of its doctrines, suggesting the deri- 
vation of the idea of a Trinity from the triadic notions 
of other religions. But he is driven to concede some 
things denied by former deists. He grants, for exam- 
ple, that if the miracles really occurred, they attest the 
revelation ; 17 and he therefore labours to show that they 
did not occur, by attacking the New Testament canon 19 
as he had before attacked the Old ; attempting to show 
that the composition of the gospels was separated by an 
interval from the alleged occurrence of the events ; ap- 
plying, in fact, Pouilly's incipient criticism on history 
which has been so freely • used in. theology by more 
recent critics. 

These remarks will exhibit Bolingbroke's views, both 
in their cause and their relation to those of former de- 
ists. It will be observed that they are for the most 
part a direct result either of sensational metaphysics or 
of the incipient science of historical criticism. 

The inquiry was now becoming more historical on 
the part both of deists and Christians. Philosophy was 
still the cause of religious controversy, but it had 
changed in character. It was now criticism weighing 
the evidence of religion rather than ethics or meta- 

15 Letter on Tillotson. . 

16 Ch. iv. 328. 17 Ch, iv, 227, 8. 18 Ch. iv. 403, 2*72, 



LECTURE IV. 147 

physics testing the materials of it. The question for- 
merly debated had been, how much of the internal 
characteristics of scripture can be supported by moral 
philosophy ; and when the conviction at length grew 
np, that the mysteries could not be solved by any an- 
alogy, but were unique, it became necessary to rest on 
the miraculous evidence for the existence of a revela- 
tion, and make the fact guarantee the contents of it. 
Inasmuch however as the revelation is contained in a 
book, it became necessary to substantiate the historical 
evidence of its genuineness and authenticity. Boling- 
broke's attacks are directed against a portion of this 
literary evidence. 

Historical criticism, in its appreciation of literary 
evidence, may be of four kinds. It may (1) examine 
the record from a dogmatic point of view, pronouncing 
on it by reference to prepossessions directed against the 
facts ; or (2) make use of the same method, but direct 
the attack against the evidence on which the record 
rests ; or (3) it may examine whether the record is con- 
temporary with the events narrated ; or (4) consider its 
internal agreement with itself or with fact. 

We have instances of each of these methods in the 
examination of the literary evidence on which miracles 
are believed. The first, the prepossession concerning 
the philosophical impossibility of miracles, is seen in 
Spinoza ; the second, the impossibility of using testi- 
mony as a proof of them, in Hume ; the third, the ques- 
tion whether they were attested by eyewitnesses, is the 
ground which Bolingbroke touches; the fourth, the 
cross-examination of the witnesses, is seen in Woolston. 
Of these, the first most nearly resembles the great mass 
of the deist objections to revelation, being ^philosophical 
rather than critical. The second forms a transition to 
the two latter, being philosophy applied to criticism, 
and is the form which deism now took. The two latter 
are those which it subsequently assumed. 19 

19 The history of Apologetik passes through the same phases, and 
when it devotes itself to the later forms, becomes of less general interest, 
and is more simply literary ; which illustrates the fact that the later doubts 



148 LECTURE IV. 

These remarks will explain Hume's position, 20 and 
show how he forms the transition between two modes 
of inquiry ; his point of view being critical, the cause 
of it philosophical. His speculations in reference to 
religion are chiefly contained in his Essays on the Hu- 
man Understanding. A brief explanation is necessary 
to show the dependence of his theology on his philos- 
ophy. 

The speculations of Locke, as we have before had 
occasion to notice, gave an impulse to psychological in- 
vestigations. He clearly saw that knowledge is limited 
by the faculties which are its source, which he consid- 
ered to be reducible to sensation and reflection ; but 
while denying the existence of innate ideas, he admitted 
the existence of innate faculties. Hartley carried the 
analysis still farther, by introducing the potent instru 7 
ment offered by the doctrine of the association of ideas. 
Hume, adopting this principle, applied it, in a manner 
very like the independent contemporaneous speculations 
of Condillac in France, to analyse the faculties them- 
selves into sensations, and to furnish a more complete 
account of the nature of some of our most general ideas, 
such, for example, as the notion of cause. The intel- 
lectual element implied in Locke's account of the pro- 
cess of reflection here drops out. Faculties are regarded 
as transformed sensations ; the nature of knowledge as 
coextensive with sensation. According to such a theory 
therefore, the idea of physical cause can mean nothing 
more than the invariable connexion of antecedent and 
consequent. The notion of force or power which we 
attach to causation becomes an unreality ; being an 
idea not given in sensation, which can merely detect 
sequence. 

are of a much less practical .and more recondite character than those 
hitherto named. 

20 Hume (1711—1776). For his philosophy, see Tennemann, Geschiekte, 
xi. 425 ; Ritter, Christliche Philosophic, viii. b. 7. ch. ii. ; Cousin, His- 
toire de la Philosophic Modeme, Logon xi. ; Morell, History of Philoso- 
phy, i. 338 ; Lord Brougham's Preliminary Discourse to Paley^s Natural 
Theology, p. 248. For his religious opinions, see Leland, Lett. 16-21 ; 
Lechler, pp. 425-34. His views on miracles were answered by Palcy, 
Bp. John Douglas, Campbell, and Chalmers. 



LECTURE IV. 149 

Such was Hume's psychology ; an attempt to push 
analysis to its ultimate limits ; valuable in its method, 
even if defective in its results ; a striking example of 
the acuteness and subtle penetration of its author. 
There is another branch of his philosophy in which he 
is regarded as a metaphysical sceptic, in reference to 
the passage of the mind outwards, by means of its own 
sensations and ideas, into the knowledge of real being, 
wherein he takes part with Berkeley, extending to the 
inner world of soul the scepticism which that philoso- 
pher had applied to the outer world of matter. In the 
psychological branch Hume is a sensationalist, in the 
ontological a sceptic. The latter however has no rela- 
tion to our present subject. It is from the former that 
his views on religion are deduced. In no writer is the 
logical dependence of religious opinion on metaphysical 
principles visible in a more instructive manner. For 
we perceive that the influence adverse to religion in his 
case was not merely the result of rival metaphysical 
dogmas opposed to religion, such as were seen in the 
Pantheists of Padua, or in Spinoza ; nor even the oppo- 
sition caused by the adoption of a different standard of 
truth for pronouncing on revelation, as in his fellow 
English deists ; but it sprung from the application of 
the subjective psychological inquiry into the limits of 
religious knowledge, as a means for criticising not only 
the logical strength of the evidence of religion, but spe- 
cially the historic evidence of testimony. We conse- 
quently see the influence exercised by the subjective 
branch of metaphysical inquiries in the discussion not 
only of the logic of religion, but also of the logic of the 
historic aspect of it. 

Hume's religious speculations 21 relate to three 
points : — to the argument for the attributes of God, 
drawn from final causes ; to the doctrine of Providence, 
and future rewards and punishments ; and to the evi- 
dence of testimony as the proof of miracles. Though 
he does not conduct an open assault in reference to any 

21 Works, vol. i v. Inquiry Concerning the Human Understanding; 
Essay xi. on Providence and Future Life; Essay x. on Miracles. 



150 LECTURE IV. 

of them, but only suggests doubts, yet in each case Lis 
insinuations sap so completely the very proof, tLat it is 
clear tLat they are intended as grounds not merely for 
doubt, but for disbelief. His doctrine of sensation is 
the clue to Lis remarks on th^two former. He argues 
tLat we can draw no sound inferences on tLe questions, 
because tLe subjects lie beyond tLe range of sensational 
experience. It is Lowever in consequence of Lis re- 
marks on tLe last of tLe three subjects in Lis essay on 
Miracles tLat Lis name Las become famous in the his- 
tory of free thought. 

The essay consists of two parts. In the first he 
shows that miracles are incapable of proof by testimony. 
Belief is in proportion to evidence. Evidence rests on 
sensational experience. Accordingly the testimony to 
the uniformity of nature being universal, and tLat which 
exists in favour of tLe occurrence of a miracle, or viola- 
tion of tLe laws of nature, being partial, tLe former 
must outweigh the latter. In the second he shows, that 
if this is true, provided the testimony be of the highest 
kind, much more will it be so in actual cases ; inasmuch 
as no miracle is recorded, the evidence for which reaches 
to this high standard. He explains the elements of 
weakness in the evidence ;<such as tLe predisposition of 
mankind to believe prodigies, forged miracles, tLe de- 
crease of miracles witL tLe progress of civilization, the 
force of rival testimony in disproof of them, which he 
illustrates by historic examples, such as the alleged mir- 
acles of Yespasian, Apolloniris, and the Jansenist Abbe 
Paris. 22 The conclusion is, that miracles cannot be so 
shown to occur as to be used as the basis of proof for a 
revelation ; and that a revelation, if believed, must rest 
on other evidence. 

The argument accordingly is briefly, that testimony 
cannot establish a fact which contradicts a law of na- 

22 The miracles connected with the Abbe Paris were defended in La 
Verite des Miracles de M. Paris, by C. de Montgeron, 1745. See con- 
cerning them, C. Butler's Church of France, ( Works, v. pp. 135-142) ; 
Bp. John Douglas's " Criterion by which the true miracles contained in the 
New Testament may be distinguished from those of Pagans and Papists ; " 
Tholuck's Vermischte jSchriften, i. 183. 



LECTURE IV. 151 

ture ; the narrower induction cannot disprove the 
wider. The reasoning has been nsed in subsequent 
controversy 23 with only a slight increase of force, or 
alteration of statement. The great and undeniable dis- 
coveries of astronomy had convinced men in the age of 
Hume of the existence of an order of nature ; and mod- 
ern discovery has not increased the proof of this in 
kind, though it has heightened it in degree, by showiug 
that as knowledge spreads the range of the operation of 
fixed law is seen to extend more widely ; and apparent 
exceptions are found to be due to our ignorance of the 
presence of a law, not to its absence. The statement 
of the difficulty would accordingly now be altered by 
the introduction of a slight modification. Instead of 
urging that testimony cannot prove the historic reality 
of the fact which we call a miracle, the assertion would 
be made that it can only attest the existence of it as a 
wonder, and is unable to prove that it is anything but 
an accidental result of an unknown cause. A miracle 
differs from a wonder, in that it is an effect wrought by 
the direct interposition of the Creator and Governor of 
nature, for the purpose of revealing a message or attest- 
ing a revelation. That testimony can substantiate won- 
ders, but not distinguish the, miracle from the wonder, 
is the modern form of the difficulty. 

The connexion of Hume's view with his metaphys- 
ical principles will be evident. If nature be known 
only through the senses, cause is only the material ante- 
cedent visible to the senses. Nature is not seen to be 
the sphere of the operation of God's regular will ; and 
the sole proof of interference with nature must be a bal- 
ancing of inductions. It will be clear also that the true 
method of replying to Hume has been rightly perceived 
by those who consider that the difficulty must be met 
by philosophy, and not by history. 

Suppose the historic evidence sufficient to attest the 
wonder, it does not prove that the wonder is a fniracle. 
The presumption in favour of this may be indefinitely 

n E. g. by Frofcssor Powell, in Essays and Reviews. 



152 LECTURE rv. 

increased by the peculiarity of the circumstances, which 
frequently forbid the idea of a mere marvel ; but the 
real proof must depend upon the previous conception, 
which we bring to bear upon the question, in respect to 
the being and attributes of God, and His relation to na- 
ture. The antecedent probability converts the wonder 
into a miracle. It acts in two ways. It obliterates the 
cold materialistic view of the regularity of nature 
which regards material laws to be unalterable, and the 
world to be a machine ; and it adds logical force to the 
weaker induction, so as to allow it to outweigh the 
stronger. No testimony can substantiate the interfer- 
ence with a law of nature, unless w T e first believe on in- 
dependent grounds that there is a God who has the 
power and will to interfere. 21 Philosophy must accord- 
ingly establish the antecedent possibility of miracles ; 
the attribute ofpower in God to effect the interruption, 
and of love in God to prompt him to do it. The condi- 
tion therefore of attaining this conception must be by 
holding to a monotheistic conception of God as a being 
possessing a personal will, and regarding mind and will 
as the rule by which to interpret nature and law, 25 and 
not conversely measuring the mental by the material. 
In this manner law becomes the operation of God's per- 
sonal fixed will, and miracle the interposition of his 
personal free will. 

It will be perceived that in distinguishing miracle 
from wonder, we also take into account the final cause 
of the alleged interposition as a reason weighty enough 
to call forth divine interposition. As soon as we intro- 
duce the idea of a personal intelligent God, we regard 
Him as acting with a motive, and measure His pur- 

24 This line of thought concerning the necessity of establishing the 
antecedent probability of the fact, in order that the evidence may be logi- 
cally convincing, is adopted by two writers of very different opinions, by 
Mr. Mansel (Essay in the Aids to Faith, § 18-23), and Mr. J. S. Mill 
{Logic, vol. ii. b. iii. ch. 25. §2). The distinction between wonder and 
miracle is allowed by Dean Lyall (Propcedia Prophetica) ; and Mr. Pen- 
rose {Tlie, use of Miracles in proving a Revelation). Cfr. also Doederlin's 
Instit. Thcol. Christ. §9, 10. 

25 See Aids to Faith, Hansel's Essay, § 22. 



LECTURE IV. 153 

poses, partly by analogy to ourselves, partly by the 
moral circumstances which demand the interposition. 26 

These remarks may furnish the solution of the puzzle 
whether the miracle proves the doctrine, or the doctrine 
the miracle. 27 Undoubtedly the miracle proves the par- 
ticular doctrine which if claims to attest ; but a doctrine 
of some kind, though not the special one in point, some 
moral conception of the Almighty's nature and charac- 
ter, must precede, in order to give the criterion for dis- 
tinguishing miracle from mere wonder. Miracles prove 
the doctrine which they are intended to attest ; but 
doctrines of a still more general character are required 
to prove the miracle. 

This examination of the doctrine of Hume will not 
only illustrate our main position, of the influence of 
intellectual and philosophical causes in generating 
doubt, or at least in directing free thought into a scep- 
tical tendency, but will illustrate the application made 
of that special department of metaphysics which relates 
to the test of truth, to discredit the literary proof of rev- 
elation as an historic system. 

26 There follows hence another peculiarity in reference to miracles; 
viz., that we require an interpreting mind to explain them. This is the 
reason why so many thoughtful men believe that the outburst of fire when 
Julian tried to rebuild the Jewish temple, and the wonder of the thorn in 
the history of Port Royal, were nothing more than natural wonders. If the 
final cause be considered to have been sufficient in these cases to warrant 
divine interposition, at least there was no interpreter to explain them, nor 
any revealed message to be taught. It must be conceded that this trait is 
wanting in some miracles recorded in scripture, but not in those which are 
wrought to attest a revelation, those which we use in proof of a special 
message from the unseen world. Werenfels (Opusc. llieol. 1718, Diss, v.) 
has given tests for the discrimination of miracles which are quoted by Van 
Mildert (Boyle Lect. II. p. 534). 

27 Cfr. Dean Trench's remarks on the apologetic value of miracles, 
[Notes on Miracles, Ihtrod. ch. vi). In the same work will be found an 
excellent and interesting account of the various assaults made on the argu- 
ment from miracles. He classifies the assaults as follows : (1) the Jewish, 
(2) the heathen (Celsus, &c), (3) the pantheistic (Spinoza), (4) the sceptical 
(Hume), (5) that which regards miracles as such only subjectively (Schleier- 
macher), (6) the rationalistic (Paulus), (7) the historico-critical (Woolston, 
Strauss). With Dean Trench's remarks. Compare also Pascal,, Pensees, 
part ii. art. 19. § 9 ; Lyall, Prop. Proph. p. 441 ; Dr. Arnold's Lectures 
on Modern History, pp. 133, 137. 

7* 



154: LECTUKE IV. 

We have now sketched the natural history of deism, 
by showing that in this as in former periods the forms 
which free thought assumed were determined by the 
philosophy, and, in a slighter degree, by the critical 
knowledge of the age. 

The inquiry into method in the seven teen th century 
had led men to break with authority, and rebuild from 
its foundations the temple of truth. Locke, imbibing 
this spirit, had gauged anew the human understanding, 
and had sought a new origin for its knowledge, and 
given expression to the appeal to the reasoning powers, 
which marked the age. Political circumstances had 
not only generated free inquiry, but had required each 
man to form his . political creed. In all departments 
reason w T as appealed to. Even the province of the 
imagination was invaded by it, and perfection of form 
preferred to freshness of conception in art and poetry. 
The doubt of the age reflected • the same spirit. 
Whether its advocates belonged to the school of Des- 
cartes or of Locke, both alike examined religion by the 
standard of psychology and ethics. That which was to be 
believed was to be comprehended as well as apprehended. 
Yet the appeal was not made to reason in its. highest 
form ; and, with a show of depth, philosophy neverthe- 
less failed to exhibit the deepest analysis. 

We have watched the exhibition of the successive 
phases of the attack, and have seen reason, first examin- 
ing the method of theology, protesting against mystery 
in doctrine or morals ; next criticising the historic real- 
ity of the evidence offered for its doctrines ; then deny- 
ing the moral utility of revelation, or attacking the doc- 
trines and internal truths ; lastly denying the validity 
of testimony for the supernatural. 

In the later steps the influence of the French school 
of speculation is already observable, mingling itself with 
English deism. Consequently the subsequent traces of 
unbelief in England must be deferred till the nature of 
this movement has been explained. 

Deism stands contrasted with the unbelief of other 
times by certain peculiarities. In its coarse spirit of 



LECTURE IV. 155 

bitter hostility, and want of real insight into the excel- 
lence of the system which it opposed, it recalls in some 
respects the attack of the ancient heathen Celsus ; and 
the difficulties propounded are frequently not dissimilar 
to those stated by him, though resulting from a different 
philosophical school. The tenacious, grasp which it 
maintained of the doctrine of the unity of God would 
cause it to bear a closer resemblance to the system of 
Julian, if the deists had not lacked the literary tastes 
which strengthened his love for heathenism. The mon- 
otheism constitutes also a line of demarcation between 
deism and more modern forms of unbelief. It restrained 
the deists from falling into the forms of subtle pantheism 
previously noticed, and the atheism which will hereafter 
meet us. The character of their doubts too, selected 
from patent facts of mind and heart, which appealed to 
common sense, and were not taken from a minute lite- 
rary criticism-, which removes doubt from the sphere of 
the ordinary understanding into the world of literature, 
separates them from more modern critical unbelief. 

Standing thus apart, characterised by intense attach- 
ment to monotheism, and placing its foundation in the 
great facts of nature, deism errs by defect rather than 
excess ; in that which it denies, not in that which it 
asserts. It is a system of naturalism or rationalism ; the 
interpretation which reason, without attaining the deep- 
est analysis, offers of the scheme of the world, natural 
and moral. Its only parallel is the particular species of 
German thought derived from it which existed at the 
close of the last century, and sought like it to reduce 
revealed religion to natural. 23 

Whether -emotional causes, personal moral faults 
coincided with these intellectual causes, and were the 
obstacle which prevented the attainment of a deeper 
insight into the mysteries of revelation, and made them 
to halt in the mysteries of nature, ought to be taken 
into account in forming a judgment on the concrete 
cases, but does not so properly belong to the general 

28 E. g. Leasing, &c. Reimarus, &c. See Lect. VI. 



156 LECTURE IV. 

consideration in which we are now engaged, of tracing 
the types of deist thought. Some of the deists were 
very moral men, a few immoral ; but the truth or un- 
truth of opinions may be studied apart from the charac- 
ter of the persons who maintain them. 

The movement, if viewed as a whole, is obsolete. 
If the same doubts are now repeated, they do not recur 
in the same form, but are connected with new forms 
of philosophy, and altered by contact with more recent 
criticism. In the present day sceptics would believe less 
than the deists, or believe more, both in philosophy and 
in criticism. In philosophy, the fact that the same diffi- 
culties occur in natural religion as well as in revealed, 
would now throw them back from monotheism into 
atheism or pantheism ; while the nrysteries of revelation, 
which by a rough criticism were then denied, would be 
now conceded and explained away as psychological 
peculiarities of races or individuals. In criticism, the 
delicate examination of the sacred literature would now 
prevent both the revival of the cold unimaginative want 
of appreciation of its extreme literary beauty,- and the 
hasty imputation of the charge of literary forgery 
against the authors of the documents. In the deist 
controversy the whole question turned upon the differ- 
ences and respective degrees of obligation of natural 
and revealed religion, moral and positive duties ; the 
deist conceding the one, denying the other. 

The permanent contribution to thought made by 
the controversy consisted in turning attention from ab- 
stract theology to psychological, from metaphysical dis- 
quisitions on the nature of God to ethical consideration 
of the moral scheme of redemption for man. Theology 
came forth from the conflict, reconsidered from the psy- 
chological point of view, and readjusted to meet the 
doubts which the new form of philosophy — psychology 
and ethics — might suggest. 

The attack of revealed religion by reason awoke 
the defence ; and no period in church history is so re- 
markable for works on the Christian evidences,— grand 
monuments of mind and industry. The works of de- 



LECTUEE IV. 157 

fenders are marked by the adoption of the same basis 
of reason as their opponents ; and hence the topics 
which, they illustrate have a permanent philosophical 
value, though their special utility as arguments be les- 
sened by the alteration in the point of view now as- 
sumed by free thought. 

The one writer whose reputation stands out pre- 
eminently above the other apologists is bishop Butler. 29 
His praise is in all the churches. Though the force of 
a few illustrations in his great work may perhaps have 
been slightly weakened by the modern progress of phys- 
ical science, 30 and though objections have been taken on 
the ground that the solutions are not ultimate, 31 mere 
media axiomata / yet the work, if regarded as adapted 
to those who start from a monotheistic position, pos- 
sesses a permanent power of attractiveness which can 
only be explained by its grandeur as a work of philoso- 
phy, as well as its mere potency as an argument. The 
width and fulness of knowledge displayed in the former 
respect, together with the singular candour and dignified 
forbearance of its tone, go far to explain the secret of its 
mighty influence. When viewed in reference to the 
deist writings against which it was designed, or the 

29 Butler (1692-1752). The Analogy was published in 1736. The 
reader's attention is invited to the excellent edition of it by bishop Fitz- 
gerald (1st ed. 1849), and the able memoir and criticism which precede. 
Mr. Bartlett has also written a memoir of Butler. Cfr. also Blunt's Essays, 
p. 490 seq. 

30 For example, some of the physical proofs of immortality in part i. 
ch. i. are weakened by the discoveries of physiology ; and those in favour 
of the miraculous character of creation, in part ii. ch. ii. would be regarded 
as of small value by those who hold the hypothesis either of the transmu- 
tation of species, or of their occurrence according to a law of natural selec- 
tion. Some things of a different kind in Butler, which need correction, are 
pointed out in Fitzgerald's edition. See e. g. p. 184, note. 

31 This is the objection taken by Tholuck (Vermischt. Schrift. p. 192, 
3.) A somewhat similar objection is quoted by Fitzgerald from Mackintosh, 
Introd. p. 49, upon both of which he offers criticisms. A kindred objection 
has been stated (probablv by Mr. Martineau) in the National Review, No. 
15. Jan. 1859, (pp. 211-214,). and another by Miss S. Hennell in the 
Sceptical Tendency of Butler's Analogy, 1S57, in which she traces doubt 
in Butler's life as well as teaching. Others may be found stated and 
examined in bishop Hampden's Philosophical Evidence of Christicuiity, 
1827. (pp. 229-291.) 



158 LECTURE IV. 

works of contemporary apologists, Butler's carefulness 
in study is manifest. Though we conjectured that Tin- 
dal's work 32 was the one to which he intended chiefly to 
reply, yet not one difficulty in the philosophy, hardly 
one in the critical attacks made by the various deists, is 
omitted ; and the best arguments of the various apolo- 
gists are used. But both the one and the other are so 
assimilated by his own mind, that the use of them only 
proves his learning, without diminishing his originality. 
They are so embodied into his system, that it is difficult 
even for a student well acquainted with the deist and 
apologetic literature to point precisely to the doubt or 
parallel argument which may have suggested to him 
material of thought. And thus, though his work as an 
argument ought always to be viewed in relation to his 
own times, yet the omission of all temporary means of 
defence, and the restricting himself to the use of those 
permanent facts which indelibly belong to human na- 
ture, and to the scheme of the world, have caused his 
work to possess an enduring interest, and to be a Krrj^a 
e? aei The persuasive moderation of its tone also 
proves that Butler had really weighed the evidence. 
In its absence of arrogant denunciation, and its candid 
admission that the evidence of religion is probable, not 
demonstrative ; and in the request that the whole evi- 
dence may be weighed like a body of circumstantial 
proofs, we can perceive that Butler had felt the doubts 
as well as understood them, and evidently meant his 
works for the doubter rather than for the Christian : 



32 This conjecture is given by Fitzgerald in the life prefixed to his edi- 
tion of the Analogy (p. 36), where also two passages are quoted, one from 
Foster, and the other from Berkeley, which certain passages of Butler 
resemble. It would be interesting to know whether the work of Dr. Peter 
Browne on Things Divine and Natural conceived of by Analogy, 1733, 
had come under Butler's notice. Many similar passages, as well as referen- 
ces to the sources of the difficulties which Butler answers, are given in the 
notes to Fitzgerald's edition. Mr. Pattison also (Essays and Reviews, p. 
286) has expressed an opinion that Butler was much assisted by the works 
of his predecessors. The probability is, that in all great works their authors 
assimilate an amount of information current in the -age, as well as create 
new material. This was probably the case even in works like Euclid's 
Geometry and Aristotle's Natural History and Organum. 



LECTUKE IV. 159 

to convince foes, or support the hesitating, rather than 
to win applause from friends. 

The real secret of its power however lies not merely 
in its force as an argument to refute objections against 
revelation, but in its positive effect as a philosojihy, 33 
opening up a grand view of the divine government, and 
giving an explanation of revealed doctrines, by using 
analogy as the instrument for adjusting them into the 
scheme of the universe. 34 He seems himself to have 
taken a broad view of God's dealings in the moral 
world, analogous to that which the recent physical dis- 
coveries of his time had exhibited in the natural. In 
the same manner as Newton in his Principia had, by an 
extension of terrestrial mechanics, explained the move- 
ments of the celestial orbs, and united under one grand 
generalization the facts of terrestrial and celestial mo- 
tion ; so Butler aimed at exhibiting as. instances of one 
and the same set of moral laws the moral government 
of God, which is visible to natural reason, and the spir- 
itual government, which is unveiled by revelation. 

Probably no book sinpe the beginning of Christianity 
has ever been so useful to the church as Butler's Anal- 
ogy, in solving the doubts of believers or causing them 
to ignore exceptions, as well as in silencing unbelievers. 
The office of apologetic is to defend the church, not to 
build it up. Argument is not the life of the church. 
It is therefore a proof of the philosophical power and 
truth of Butler's work that it has ministered so ex- 
tensively to the latter purpose, by actually reinforcing 
and promoting the faith of professing Christians. It 
has acted not only as an argument to the deists, but as 
a lesson of instruction to the church. 

Few efforts of free thought seemed more unprom- 
ising in yielding any useful results than deism ; yet by 
its agitation of deep questions, which are not the mere 

S3 The value of Butler's argument is fully discussed in the admirable 
work on Butler by bishop Hampden before quoted, which, is the best exist- 
ing commentary on the author: second to it are Chalmers's Natural Reli- 
gion and Bride/water Treatise. 

34 Hampden's Phil Evid. (131-228.) 



160 LECTUEE IV. 

phantoms of a morbid mind, but real and solid difficul- 
ties and mysteries in revelation, it was the means of 
creating Butler's noble work, and is a fresh illustration 
of the beneficent arrangement of the Almighty, that 
makes knowledge progress by antagonism, and overrules 
evil for good. 

But there is another weapon for repelling unbelief 
besides the intellectual ; just as there are two causes for 
creating it, the one intellectual, the other emotional. 
Thus, in the period that we are now considering, though 
we may believe that many hearts were cheered and 
many doubts hushed by the Christian apologies, yet the 
revival of religion 35 which marked the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and which by spreading vital piety prepared an 
effectual check against unbelief, when the lower orders 
were afterwards invaded by it, was due to the spiritual 
yearnings created by the ministrations of men, often rude 
and unlettered, who told the wondrous story of Christ 
crucified, heart speaking to heart, with intuitions kin- 
dled from on high. The sinful began to feel that God 
was not afar on, reposing in the solitude of his own 
blessedness, and abandoning mankind to the govern- 
ment of conscience and to the operation of general laws, 
but nigh at hand, with a heart of fatherly love to pity 
and an ear of mercy to listen. The narrative of Christ 
the Son of God, coming down to seek and to save that 
which was lost, awoke an echo in the heart which neu- 
tralized the doubts infused by the deist. And it is a 
comfort to every Christian labourer to know that if he 
cannot wrangle out a controversy with the doubter, he 
can speak to the doubter's heart. 

Few would compare the irregular missionaries of 
spiritual religion in the last century with the great 
writers of evidence. The names of the latter ^are hon- 
oured ; those of the former are unknown or too often 
despised. It might seem strange, for example, to insti- 

35 The revival in the early part of the century was due to the agency of 
Wesley and Whitfield outside the church ; in the latter to those of such 
men as Romaine, Newton, and ultimately Simeon, within it. 



LECTURE IV. 161 

tute a comparison between the two contemporaries, 
bishop Butler and John Wesley. Yet there are points 
of contrast which are instructive. Each was one of the 
most marked instruments of movement and influence in 
the respective fields of the argumentative and the spir- 
itual ; the one a philosopher writing for the educated, 
the other a missionary preaching to the poor. Butler, 
educated a nonconformist, turned to the church, and in 
an age of unbelief consecrated his great mental gifts to 
roll back the flood of infidelity ; and died early, when 
his unblemished example was so much needed in the 
noble sphere of usefulness which Providence had given 
him, leaving a name to be honoured in the church for 
generations. "Wesley, nursed in the most exclusive 
church principles, kindled the flame of his piety by the 
devout reading of mystic books ; 36 when our university 
was marked by the half-heartedness of the time ; and 
afterwards, when instructed by the Pietists of Ger- 
many, 37 devoted a long life to wander over the country, 
despised, ill-treated, but still untired ; teaching with 
indefatigable energy the faith which he loved, and intro- 
ducing those irregular agencies of usefulness which are 
now so largely adopted even in the church. He too 
was an accomplished scholar, and possessed great gifts 
of administration ; but whatever good he effected, in 
kindling the spiritual Christianity which checked the 
spread of infidelity, was not so much by argument as by 
stating the omnipotent doctrine of the Cross, Christ set 
forth as the propitiation for sin through faith in his 
blood. The earnestness of the missionary may be imi- 
tated by those who cannot imitate the philosopher's lite- 
rary labours. Gifts of intellect are not in our own 
power. But industry to improve the talents that we 
possess is our own ; and the spiritual perception of 
divine truth, and burning love for Christ which will 



3G E. g., W. Law's Serious Call, and Christian Perfection. 
37 Viz., by means of the Moravians of Hernnhut, whose founder; Zin- 
zendorf, himself sprang from the pietist movement. 



162 LECTURE IV. 

touch the heart, and before which all unhealthy doubts 
will melt away as frost before the sun, will be given 
from on high by the Holy Ghost freely to all that ask. 
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord." 38 

38 Zech. iv. 6. 



LECTURE V 



UNBELIEF EST ENGLAND SUBSEQUENT TO 1760. 



IsAiAn xxvi. 20. 
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about 
thee : hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation 
be overpast. 

WE now approach the study of a period, remarkable 
no less in the history of the world than in that of 
religious thought, in which unbelief gained the victory 
|n the empire of mind, and obtained the opportunity 
of reconstructing society and education according to 
its own views. The history of infidelity in France in 
the eighteenth century forms a real crisis in history, im- 
portant by its effects as well as its character. For 
France has always been the prerogative nation of Eu- 
rope. When wants intellectual or political have been 
felt there, the life of other nations has beat sympathetic 
with it as with the heart of the European body. Ideas 
have been thrown into form by it for transmission to 
others. It will be necessary to depict the free religious 
thought, both intellectually and in its political action ; 
to characterise its principal teachers ; to show whence 
it sprung, and to what result it tended ; to point out 
wherein lay the elements of its power and its wicked- 
ness ; to show what it has contributed to human woe, 
or perchance indirectly to human improvement. 

The source of its' influence cannot be understood 



164: LECTTJKE V. 

without recalling some facts of the history of French 
politics and philosophical speculation. What was the 
cause why English deists wrote and taught their creed 
in vain, were despised while living and consigned to 
oblivion when dead, refrained almost entirely from 
political intermeddling, and left the church in England 
unhurt by the struggle ; while on the other hand 
deism in France became omnipotent, absorbed the intel- 
lect of the country, swept away the church, and remod- 
elled the state ? The answer to this question must be 
sought in the antecedent history. It is a phenomenon 
political rather than intellectual. It depended upon 
the soil in which the seed was sown, not on the inhe- 
rent qualities of the seed itself. 1 

The church and state have hardly ever possessed 
more despotic power in any country of modern times, 
or seemed to all appearances to repose on a more secure 
foundation, than in France at the time when they were 
first assailed by the free criticism of the infidels of the 
eighteenth century. Each had escaped the alterations 
which had been effected in most other countries. The 
clergy of France had in the sixteenth century success- 
fully resisted the Reformation, and gained strength by 
the issue of the civil wars which supervened on it. 
In the seventeenth century, though compelled to admit 
toleration of their Protestant adversaries, they had con- 
trived before the end of it to obtain a revocation of the 
edict, even though the act cost France the loss of a mil- 
lion of her industrious population, and though the en- 

] The most effective sketch of the intellectual and social state of France 
in the last century is given in Buckle's History of Civilisation, vol. i. ; 
especially in ch. 8, 11, 12, and 14. His narrative only sets forth the dark 
side of the picture, and the Christian reader frequently feels pained at 
some of his remarks ; but it is generally correct so far as it goes, and the 
references are copious to the original sources which the author used. I 
have therefore frequently rested content with quoting this work without 
indicating further sources. An instructive account of the centralization 
under Louis XIV is given in Sir J. Stephens's Lectures on the History of 
France, Lect. 21-23. The reign of Louis XV is treated in De Tocque- 
ville's Hhtoire Philosophic du Regnc de Louis XV. A brief view of the 
history may be seen in the works of the liberal Roman catholic, C. Butler, 
vol. v. on Church of France. 



LECTURE V. 165 

forcing of it had to be effected by the means of the 
dragonnades, in which a brutal soldiery was let loose 
on an innocent population. 1 Thus the church, united 
with rather than subjected to the state, adorned by great 
names, asserting its national independence in the pride 
of conscious strength against the metropolitan see of 
Christendom, 2 possessed a power which, while it seemed 
to promise perpetuity, stood as an impediment to prog- 
gress and a bar to intellectual development. 

Nor was the cause of liberty more hopeful in rela- 
tion to the state than the church. The crown, in pass- 
ing through a similar struggle against the feudal nobil- 
ity to that of other countries, had succeeded in securing 
its victory without yielding those concessions to. the de- 
mands of the people which in our own country were ex- 
torted from it by the civil war. The strength gained 
by the defeat of the nobility in the wars of the Fronde, 
offered the opportunity for an able sovereign like Louis 
XIV to dry up all sources of independent power, by 
centralizing all authority in the monarchy. Proud 
in the consciousness of internal power and foreign vic- 
tory, surrounded by wealth and talent, with a court 
and literature which were the glory of the country, he 
seemed likely to transmit his power to coming genera- 
ations. But the inherent weakness of despotism was 
soon apparent. Unrestrained authority appertains on- 
ly to the Divine government, because power is there 
synonymous with goodness ; but it is always unsafe in 
human. The wisdom which partially supplied the 
place of goodness in Louis XIV being wanting in his 
successor, unchecked selfishness produced the corrup- 
tion which brought inevitable ruin. 

These remarks on the political state of France will 

2 The passages from Benoit's Hhtoirc cle V Edict de Nantes, vol. v. p. 
887 seq., and Quick's Synodicon, i. p. 130 seq., respecting the cruelties of 
the dragonnades, are quoted at length in Buckle, i. p. 624, note. 

3 This occurred in the contest concerning the Gallican liberties, and 
the dispute about the Bull Unigenitus. Concerning the former see C. 
Butler's Church of France (Works, vol. v.) p. 34 seq., and Ease's 
Church History, §424; and, on the latter, Butler ut sup. 188-149, and 
Base, § 420. 



166 LECTURE V. 

sufficiently show why a free criticism directed against 
either religion or tyranny should assume revolutionary 
tendencies, and should manifest an antipathy to social 
and ecclesiastical institutions, as well as to the princi- 
ples on which they were supposed to depend. 

But the forces operating in the world of mind, as 
well as in society, must also be understood, in order 
to estimate the influence of unbelief in France. In a 
previous lecture we have seen that in the middle of the 
seventeenth century the philosophy of Descartes had 
created a complete revolution in modes of thought. 
It was only in the philosophy of Spinoza that it produced 
theological unbelief; but by its indirect influence it 
had led generally to an entire reconsideration of the first 
data of reasoning, and the method of establishing truth ; 
and thus had stimulated the struggle of reason against 
faith, of inquiry against credulity, of progress against 
reaction, and of hopefulness in the future against rev- 
erence for the past. The activity of mind displayed 
in the literature of the reign of Louis XI Y is its first 
expression. 4 But thoughts ferment long in society be- 
fore they fully express themselves in form : they first 
exist as suggestions ; then the}^ become doubts ; lastly, 
they pass into disbelief. It was not until the time of 
the regency, 5 which ensued after the death of Louis, 
that the literature became impressed with a thoroughly 
new tone. 6 

Other causes of a more direct kind cooperated. The 
English philosophy of Locke, which marked an epoch 
in speculation, was introduced at that time. This phi- 
losophy however could not have resulted in those spec- 
ulations which arose in France, if it had not been car- 
ried farther by the analysis which Condillac employed 
in that countrv, analogous to that of Hume in Scotland. 



4 The nature of the literature of the reign of Louis XTV, and the 
alteration of position of authors' in the new reign, are explained in Buckle, 
i. ch. 11 and 12. 

5 1715-1723. 

6 Literature really became a political power, and exercised a similar 
influence to that of the modern newspaper press. . 



LECTURE V. 167 

In itself it expressed the reasoning type of mind and 
thought which reigned throughout the English litera- 
ture ; but the corollaries from it which produced harm 
were no part of the original system. 7 Gondii! ac, desir- 
ing to carry out the analysis of the origin of knowledge, 
lost sight of the intellectual element in Locke's account 
of the process of reflection ; denied the existence of in- 
nate faculties as well as innate ideas ; and attempted 
to show that man's mind is so passive, so dependent on 
the evidence of the senses for the material of its thoughts, 
and on language for the power to combine them, that 
its very faculties are transformed sensations. 8 From 
these premises it was not hard for his followers to draw 
the inferences of materialism 9 in philosophy, selfishness 
in morals, and an entire denial of those religious truths 
which cannot be proved by sensuous evidence. This 
philosophy began to leaven the mind of France, and 
was accepted by nearly the whole of French unbe- 
lievers. 

Such was the intellectual state of France in refer- 
ence to the standard of appeal contemporaneously with 
the political and ecclesiastical condition before described. 
In the state and church all was authority ; all was of 
the past : in the world of literature and philosophy 
all was criticism, activity, hope in the future. Into a 
soil thus prepared the seeds of unbelief on the subject 
of religion were introduced. We cannot deny that they 
were imported mainly from England. Doubt had in- 
deed not been wholly wanting in France. In the pre- 



7 Professor Webb of Dublin, in his work, Tlie Intellcctualism of Locke, 
has given evidence which establishes this point. 

8 On Condillac see Cousin, Cours de la Philosophic Morale, lecon 3; 
Renouvier, Philosophic Modern*, v. 2. § 4 ; Villemain, Cours de Litera- 
ture, ii. 20 ; Morels- History of Philosophy, i. 148 seq. ; Lewes' History 
of Philosophy. 

9 It may prevent ambiguity to state that the term materialism, when 
employed in these lectures, is not used in its modern popular sense of mere 
animalism, the obedience to the lower side of human nature ; but in its 
technical sense, as the kind of philosophy which so regards spirit to be a 
property of matter as to produce inferences unfavourable to the belief in 
immortality or moral obligation. 



168 LECTURE V. 

ceding centuries Montaigne 10 and Charron, 11 and, at the 
commencement of the one of which we speak, Bayle 12 
and Fontenelle, 13 were probably harassed with disbe- 
lief, and their influence was certainly productive of 
doubt. And free thought, in the form of literary criti- 
cism of the scriptures, had brought down the denun- 
ciation of the French church on Richard Simon. 14 But 
undoubtedly the direct parent of the French unbelief 
was English deism. 16 In no age of French history has 
English literature possessed so powerful an influence. 18 
England had recently achieved those liberties of which 
France felt the need. It had safely outlived civil war 
and revolution, and had established constitutional liber- 
ty and religious toleration. In England the victims of 
the French oppression found shelter. Being itself free, 
it became the refuge for the exile, the shelter for the 
oppressed. It thus became the object of study to the 
politician, and of love to the philanthropist. Its lit- 
erature too, in two branches, viz. political inquiry, 
and, towards the middle of the century, romance, of- 
fered subjects for imitation. Montesquieu studied the 
former; .Rousseau and Diderot the latter. But Eng- 
land furnished also a series of fearless inquirers on 
the subject of religion, whose works became the subject 
of study and of translation. 17 Voltaire spent three 

10 On the scepticism of Montaigne (1532-1592) see Tennemann's Ges- 
chichte der Philosophie, ix. 443; Vinet's Essai de Philosophic Morale; 
Sainte-Beuve Critiques et Portraits Litteraires, vol. iv. ; Hallam's History 
of Literature, ii. 29; Emerson's Representative Men; and B. W. Church 
in Oxford Essays, 1857. 

11 On Charron (1541-1G03) see Tennemann, Id. ix. 527, Sainte-Beuve, 
t. xi. ; Hallam, i. 570, ii. 362, 511 ; and the article in the Biogr. Univ. 

12 Oil Bayle (1647-1706) see Tennemann, xi. 268 seq. ; Benouvier, 
Phil Mod. iii. 3. § 6 ; Sainte-Beuve, iii. 392. 

J3 On Fontenelle (1657-1757) see Sainte-Beuve, iii. and the Biogr. 
Univ. Another writer, Dolet (1509-1546), was also suspected, at an 
earlier period, not only of scepticism but of atheism. See his Life, by J. 
Boulmier, 1857. 

14 On R. Simon see Lect. III. p. 83. 

15 See Lechler's Gesch. des Eng. Dcismus, p. 445. 

10 On the great eagerness for English literature in France at that time, 
see the facts collected by Buckle, i. (658-670). 

11 A list of those that are said to have been translated is given by 



LECTURE V. 169 

years of exile in England, 18 at the time when the fer- 
ment existed concerning "W oolston's attack on miracles, 
and both knew Bolingbroke personally, and translated 
his writings. 

Having now explained the sources of doubt in 
France ; we must next direct our attention to the 
course of its speculations, and to the chief authors. 

If we estimate its course by literary works, or by 
social and political movements, we may distribute the 
history of it into two periods ; one comprising the first 
half of the century, wherein it attacks the French 
church and Christianity ; the other, the latter half, 
wherein it mingles itself with the demand for political 
change, and assaults the state, 19 until its effects are seen 
in the anarchy of the French revolution. In the for- 
mer of these periods the unbelief is tentative and sug- 
gestive. About the time of the transition to the second, 
in the pride of supposed victory it becomes dogmatic. 
Christianity is supposed to be exploded. Philosophy 
seeks to occupy its place in the social and intellectual 
world. The early doubters and Voltaire mark the for- 
mer of these epochs. Diderot and the French encyclo- 
paedists, with the ramification of their school at the 
court of Frederick II of Prussia, form the point of tran- 
sition. Rousseau marks the opening of the second pe- 
riod, when unbelief was attempting to reconstruct soci- 
ety and remodel education. The selfish philosophy of 
Helvetius and his friends then carries on the course of 
the history of unbelief, until in the storm of the revolu- 
tion it shows itself in the teaching of Yolney, and the ab- 
surd acts of the tlieophilanthropists. 

The name of Voltaire, which the logical and chro- 
nological order introduces first to our notice, is so pre- 

Lechler, Id. 446. On the comparison of English and French deism see 
Henke's Kirchenge.schichte, vi. s. 131. 

18 1726-1729. Cfr. Villemain, Cours de Litt. i. (168-1/7Y). A letter of 
Fleury, quoted from Schlosser by Lechler (Id. 446), proves that his fears 
were excited by the influence which English literature was producing. 

19 On this charge of attack about 1750 see Buckle, i. Y16— 718 ; and on 
the origin of the attack on the church, and the causes why it preceded that 
on the state, Id. 684 seq. Cfr. also De Tocqueville's Louis XV. t. ii. ch, 10, 

8 



170 LECTUEE V. 

eminent, that his character and teaching may express 
the history of the early movement in France. 

The story of his life, so far as we require now to be 
made acquainted with it, can be briefly told. 20 Born 
toward the close of the seventeenth century, he man- 
ifested, as a legend assures us, such a doubting spirit, 
even in boyhood, that his priestly preceptor predicted 
that he w^ould prove a Coryphaeus of deism. His rare 
precocity of intellect early acquired for him a repu- 
tation in the world of letters. Compelled to become 
an exile in England, 21 he studied its politics, its science, 
and its scepticism. On his return to France, he en- 
deavoured to introduce among his countrymen the 
cosmical and mathematical doctrines of Newton ; and 
made himself conspicuous in history, in poetry, in fic- 
tion, and above all, in theology, by his attacks on reveal- 
ed religion and the French church. About the middle 
of the century, accepting an invitation to the court of 
Frederick the Great of Prussia, he aided thence the in- 
troduction of infidel doctrines in Germany. A few 
years later he withdrew into retirement at Ferney, but 
was able from his seclusion to wield an intellectual 
power throughout Europe. 

It was from this retirement that he denounced the 
acts of tyranny, or supposed injustice, inflicted by the 
French church. His indignant denunciations in the 
cases o'f the Sirven, 22 of La Barre, 23 and above all of the 



20 Voltaire lived 1694-1 778. The Life by Lord Brougham, in Lives 
of Men of Letters, is not only very full of facts, but contains some very 
able criticism, especially on the dramatic works of Voltaire. More bio- 
graphies have been given in this lecture than in others, in accordance with 
the reasons explained in Lee. I. p. 33, because in this period the infidel 
influence was the result of the teachers, as much as of the ideas taught. 
See concerning Voltaire, Henke's ' Kirchengesch. vi. 166; Schlosser, Hist, 
of Eighteenth Century, i. 2. § 1, iv § 1. Bartholmess, Hist. Crit. des 
Docir. Reliq. de la Phil. Mod. i. 211 scq. ; Bungener's Voltaire. 

21 In 1726. 

22 Sirven was condemned in 1762, on an unjust suspicion of causing his 
daughter's death, to prevent her becoming a protestant. 

23 La Barre was a youth of seventeen, Avho, on the suspicion of having 
injured a cinicifix on the bridge of Abbeville, was condemned (1763) to be 
tortured on the rack, to have his tongue cut out, and to be put to death ; 



LECTURE V. 171 

Galas, 24 gained for him the commendation and sympa- 
thy of Europe, and remain as monuments of the power 
of the pen. 

Such was his life. Let us search in it for the secret 
of his power, and inquire what were his views in the de- 
partment which we are studying. 

His character has been analysed by so many critics, 
especially by one of our own countrymen in an essay 
of rare power, now become classical, that the opportu- 
nity of original investigation is impossible, and the at- 
tempt undesirable. 25 

In the opinion of this writer, the secret of Yoltaire's 
strength was the tact which he displayed in expressing 
the wants of his time to his countrymen in the precise 
mode most suited to them. 26 He belonged to the class 
of those who exercise their influence in their own life- 
time—men of the present, not men of the future ; ac- 
cordingly, whether he be viewed as a man, in his own 
personal qualities, in the moral and intellectual proper- 
ties which constituted his character, or as an artist, in 
the manner in which he conveyed his thoughts to the 
world, lie will be found to be the loftiest exponent and 
type of the spirit of his age. It was an age without 

which sentence was literally executed. See LiograpMe Universelle, sub 
Voltaire, vol. xix. p. 484, and Brougham's Life of him (94-99). 

24 The Calas were a family at Toulouse, the father of which was put to 
death (1762) by catholic fanaticism. Voltaire investigated the facts with 
care ; and, by instituting legal proceedings at Paris, got the sentence of the 
Toulouse court reversed, and all the reparation that was possible made to 
the family. Money to defray the expenses was sent to him from all the 
reformed parts of Europe. The English queen (Charlotte) and the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury (Seeker) headed the English subscription list. The 
facts have lately been reinvestigated by the accomplished A. Coquerel^/zYs., 
Jean Calas et sa Famille, 1858. The narrative is told in the Westminster 
Review, No. 28, for Oct. 1858. See also Henke's KircJievgcschichte, vi. 
298 seq. 

On the tomb of Voltaire, now a cenotaph, in the vaults of the Pantheon, 
is an inscription, "II defendit Calas, Sirven, De la Barre, et Montbailly." 
Since the Pantheon has been converted into a church, the side of the tomb 
which bears this inscription has been concealed by a screen, so that visitors 
are only permitted to view one of the other sides. 

25 Carlyle's Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii. It will be observed that 
many of the following remarks are abbreviated from this source. 

26 Carlyle, Id. p. 113. 



172 LECTURE V. 

originality, without spiritual insight, careful of man- 
ners rather than morals, corrupted by selfishness, led 
by ambition, dissatisfied with the present, and anxious 
for deliverance ; but unable to espy the real causes of 
the mischief, and to escape confusing principles with 
men ; fond of form rather than material ; classical 
rather than Gothic ; critical rather than reverent ; 
proud of its own discoveries, without appreciation of 
the efforts of the past. — Such are the qualities which 
characterised the times of Yoltaire, 27 and in their most 
striking form marked his mind. 

To qualities which were thus in some sense formed 
in him by circumstances, he added remarkable ones 
which were Nature's special gift to him. His extra- 
ordinary tact and good sense, both in dealing personally 
with individuals and in literary criticism ; his fiery 
ardour, and vehement spirit of proselytism ; his sin- 
gular penetration of vision, and power to arrange in 
the clearest mode the thoughts which he wished to 
transmit ; above all, his wit and wonderful power of 
satire were qualities which, though in some degree 
shared by his countrymen, cannot be explained by 
mere circumstances, but are natural gifts. These three 
intellectual endowments, acuteness, order, and satire, 28 
are regarded by the authority that we are taking for 
our guide, as the qualities which formed the secret of 
his power as a writer, and at the same time as the 
sources of intellectual temptation which prevented him 
from gaining a deeper insight into truth, and deprived 
him of influence with posterity. For his quickness 
prevented the exercise of the reflection, the patient 
meditation, which is the only high road to solve the 
mysteries of existence. It has been well said, 29 that 
Yoltaire saw so much more deeply at a glance than 
other men, that no second glance was ever given by 
him. Ilis power of order assisting his quickness, was 

27 i. e. the age of Louis XV. See Id. pp. 180-185. 
2b On Voltaire's power of ridicule, see Id. 120, 167 ; and on his power 
of order, 163 seq. ' 
3J Id. p. 161. 



LECTUKE V. 173 

a still further temptation. Though far inferior in eru- 
dition to some of his contemporaries, such as Diderot, 
and in depth of feeling to Rousseau, lacking originali- 
ty, and borrowing most of his philosophical thoughts 
at second hand, he yet surpassed them all by a match- 
less power of arrangement. The perfection of form 
diverted attention from the subject matter. He pos- 
sessed method rather than genius, intellect rather than 
imagination. But above all his other powers, his 
most singular gift was his power of satire. When 
stimulated by a sense of injustice, or of hatred against 
men or systems, it made him omnipotent in destruc- 
tion. This satirical power contributed to preclude the 
possession of depth of reflection. Ridicule has an office 
in criticism. It is the true punishment of folly. But 
it has been well observed, 30 that it is dangerous to him 
who employs it, as being directly opposed to humility. 
The satirist places himself above that which he ridicules, 
and makes himself the judge : the humility of the listen- 
er is laid aside ; the selfish belief of his own infallibility 
is fostered ; forbearance and sympathy are laid aside. 
The critic argues, the satirist only laughs. Pity may be 
compatible with humour, but only contempt with sa- 
tire. Voltaire was by nature a satirist ; and when his 
mockery was applied to a subject like Christianity or 
religion, his utter want of reverence not only caused 
him to substitute a caricature for a picture, but pre- 
vented him from exercising discrimination in distin- 
guishing Christianity from its counterfeit, religion 
from the ministers of it. Hence his attacks on Chris- 
tianity partake of the tone of blasphemy ; and he mani- 
fests in reference to religion, wmicli to most readers 
was the most sacred of subjects, a tone of indescribable 
scurrility, which w r as not only inexcusable and dis- 
graceful if viewed merely in a literary point of view, 
but constituted politically a public outrage against the 
dearest feelings of others which no citizen has a right 
to perpetrate. 31 " This tone too was mainly his own ; 

80 Id. p. 119. 

31 The question of Voltaire's blasphemy is treated by lord Brougham 
{.Life, p. 7). 



174 LECTUKE V. 

and is not to be found, except in rare instances, in the 
English deists from whom he borrowed. 

We have tried to comprehend the mind of Vol- 
taire, to notice his peculiarities and faults, before con- 
sidering his opinions ; because his influence was due to 
his mental and personal character rather than to the 
matter of his writings. It remains to state his views 
on religion, and the grounds of his attack on revela- 
tion. The chief materials for ascertaining them are 
the four volumes in the vast collection of his works, 
which contain his philosophical and theological writ- 
ings. 32 They partake of every variety of form, — essays, 
letters, treatises, pamphlets, translations, commentaries. 
They include, besides smaller works, a commentary on 
the Old Testament ; translations of parts of Boling- 
broke and of Toland ; an investigation concerning the 
establishment of Christianity ; deist sermons which he 
pretends had been delivered ; discourses written under 
false names ; 33 and doubts proposed and solved after the 
manner of preceding philosophers. Yet in these nu- 
merous treatises there is no claim to originality. His 
doubts and his beliefs are taken mainly from the En- 
glish deists ; and chiefly from Bolingbroke, the most 
French in mind of any of the English school. 

A few words therefore will suffice to characterise 
his opinions. It appears that he believed in a God, 34 . 

32 The four volumes are xxxii-xxxv of the (Euvres Completes, 8vo. 
1*785. Vol. xxxii contains the philosophical works, of which eh. 2, 6, 7, 
9, of the Traite de Metap/iysique, relate to religion ; also the Profession 
cle Foi cles T/iii.stes ; the Homilies j>rononcies a Londres. Vol. xxxiii 
contains the Examcn de Milord Bolingbroke ; and the Epitre aux 
Jiomains. Vol. xxxiv, La Bible enfin Expliquce, where the notes contain 
Voltaire's views fully. Vol. xxxv, Histoire de V Etablissement du Chris- 
tian? sme. 

33 On the persecutions which fell on literary men, see Buckle, i. 
(G72-6S4.) 

34 The proof of this assertion is clear in his Traite de Metaphysique, 
c. 2. (GEuvres, vol. xxxii); in Letter iii of Memmius to Cicero ; in the 
Profess, de Foi des Theistes ; and is shown by the fact of his opposition to 
the Encyclopaedists on the ground of their atheism ; Avhich is confirmed 
by the inscription on his tomb, "II combattit les athees." It is his 
blasphemous tone which has, not unnaturally, given rise to the idea of his 
atheism. 



LECTUBE V. 175 

but firmly disbelieved the divine origin of the revealed 
religion, Jewish and Christian. The main purpose of 
his life however was not affirmation, but denial. 35 Ac- 
cordingly the sole object of all his efforts was to des- 
troy belief in the plenary inspiration of the scriptures, 
and the divine origin of revelation which is attested 
by them. There is hardly a book in scripture that he 
did not attack. Successively surveying the narrative 
of Jewish history, the Gospels, and statements of ear- 
ly church history, 35 he tried to show absurdities and 
contradictions in them all ; not so much literary dif- 
ferences in the authors as difficulties of belief in the ma- 
terial revealed. In his views of Judaism and of Chris- 
tianity he seems to have fluctuated between attributing 
them to the fraud or mistake of their propagators, and 
denying their originality. The science of historical 
criticism was beginning in his day, and was applied to 
the legends of Roman history. Yoltaire embodied the 
spirit of this inquiry. In his histories he exemplified 
the cold, w r orldly, modern mode of looking at events, 
as opposed to the providential and theocratic view of 
them which had found expression as recently as in the 
works of Bossuet." And he transferred this method 
to the treatment of holy scripture. No new branch 
of information .was left unused by him for contributing 
to his impious purpose. The numerous works of travels 
which were affording an acquaintance with the mythol- 
ogy of other nations, were made to furnish him with 
the materials for hastily applying one solution to all 
the early Jewish histories, w T bich he failed to invalidate 
hy the application of the historic method just described. 

35 "Ecrasez l'infame" are the words, the initials of which, signed at 
the end of his letters to infidel friends, baffled the French police. Buckle 
considers them to have been designed against the French church, but 
offers no proof. It is to be feared that they were rather intended against 
the Christian religion, if not against the sacred person of our blessed 
Lord. 

36 See his Commentary (QZuvres, vol. xxxiv.), the Homelics (vol. xxxii.), 
and the Hintoire (vol. xxxiv.). 

37 On the contrast of his historic tone to that of Bossuet, see Buckle, 
i. 726, and Schlosser, History of the Eighteenth Century, (English trans- 
lation), vol. i. ch. iv. § 2. p. 273. 



176 LECTUKE V. 

By an inversion of the argument of the early Christian 
apologists, he pretended that the early history preserved 
among the Hebrews was borrowed from the heathens, 
instead of claiming that the heathen mythology was a 
trace of Hebrew tradition ; and, with a view to sustain 
this opinion, he discredited the integrity of the Hebrew 
literature. In nothing is his singular want of poetic 
taste, and of the power to appreciate the beauties of 
the literature of young nations, and the ethical value 
of moral institutions, more visible, than in denying the 
literary and monumental value of the Bible, and the 
moral influence of Christianity. 38 Infidels who have 
hated revealed religion as bitterly as Voltaire, have at 
least not had the meanness or the want of taste to de- 
preciate the literary and moral interest which attaches 
to it. 

Such was the character of the. man, and of the 
efforts which he directed to the injury of revelation. 
It has been said 39 that to obliterate his influence from 
the history of the eighteenth century would be to pro- 
duce a greater difference than the absence of any other 
individual in it would occasion ; and would be similar 
to the omission of Luther from the sixteenth. The 
analogy, though startling, is true in the particulars 
which it is intended to illustrate. The influence of 
each was European in his respective century ; and the 
doctrine acted not only on the world of thought, but of 
action. 

"We have described Voltaire alone ; not because he 
was isolated by any interval of time from a general 
movement, but because his attack is more rudimentary, 
being directed rather to disintegrate Christianity than 
dogmatically to affirm unbelief. He was perhaps rather 
logically prior to the others than chronologically ; being 
really connected with two bodies of men, which formed 
the centres of two infidel movements, the one in Paris, 
the other at the court of Frederick at Berlin. 

Frederick the Great surrounded himself with 

38 Compare Carlyle's remarks ut sup. p. 175. 
38 Id. 105. 



LECTURE V. 177 

French literary men. 40 They were mostly persons who 
were exiles from France to escape persecution for their 
opinions, who had first found a refuge in Holland, and 
thence endeavoured by means of the Dutch booksellers 
to introduce their writings into France. From about 
1740-60 several such teachers of infidelity were in- 
vited to the Prussian court, and dispersed their influ 
ence in Germany ; the effects of which we shall subs 
sequently find. One of them was the physician La 
Mettrie, 41 who wrote works on physiology marked by a 
low materialism. Such also was De Prades, 42 and 
more especially D'Argens. 43 The latter, struck with the 
force of " the Persian Letters " of Montesquieu, threw 
his doubts into an epistolary form, " the Jewish Letters ;" 
in which the traditional opinions and ruling systems of 
the time were attacked with great freedom. He trans- 
lated also some ancient works to serve his purpose, 
especially the fragments of the abusive work of the 
emperor Julian against Christianity, written in favour 
of the state religion of the Greeks and Romans. 

While this was the character of some of the French- 
men at the court of Frederick, whom Voltaire subse- 
quently joined ; men who, imbued with the most ex- 
travagant form of the philosophy of sensation, verged 
upon materialism ; there were coteries of literary per- 
sons in Paris, which were the rallying point of sceptical 
minds, and centres of irreligious influence. 

The existence of them is due in part to the altered 
position already named w T hich literature assumed in re- 
ference to the court during the regency. Instead of be- 
ing fostered, it was discouraged ; and Fleury manifest- 
ed an almost puritan spirit, and has left on record the 

40 On Frederick's entertainment of these French refugees, see Henke, 
Eirchengesch. vi. 180; Schlosser, vol. i. 2. § 3. 

41 La Mettrie (1*709-1 7 51). His views are seen in the Discours Pre- 
liminaire to his Hist. Nat. del dme, and in the Uhomme machine (1748). 
See a criticism on him in Ph. Damiron's Memoires pour servir a VHistoire 
de Philgsophie an 18 e siecle (vol. i. pp. 1-49), reprinted from the Report 
of the Academie des Sciences ; also Henke, vi. 13. 

42 De Prades (1T20-1'782). See Henke, vi. 201 ; also the article in the 
Wioqraphie Universelle. 

43 D'Argens (1704-l'7'7l). See Damiron, Id. ii. 256-376. 

8* 



178 . LECTUBE Y. 

expression of his alarm at the growing sceptical tone of 
literary works, and the imitation of the English spirit. 
Owing accordingly to the absence of patronage, and to 
the lavishment of those favours on extravagance which 
the elder Louis had bestowed on the . fostering of intel- 
lect, literature became disjoined from court influences ; 
and hence there grew up small centres of literary influ- 
ence, analogous to those preceding the times of Louis 
XIV, 41 and nuclei for intellectual movement, where of 
old the various bodies had ail moved round one cen- 
tral sun. 

It would be irrelevant to enter into the details of 
these coteries. (23) Some were simply of fashion and 
taste ; but others were undoubtedly gatherings of pow- 
erful thinkers, imbued with infidel principles, whose 
character belongs to French literature and the mental 
and moral culture of the time. One of the most re- 
markable of these coteries included names noted in 
French literature, such as Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alem- 
bert, 45 D'Holbach, Marmontel, 46 Helvetius, Grimm, 47 
St. Lambert, 48 and E-aynal. 49 We must notice some of 
them in detail, in order at once to appreciate the char- 
acter of their works, and to illustrate the relation of 
their unbelief to the philosophy which they adopted. 50 

44 On the old coteries of Rambouillet, &c, sec Ilallam's Hist, of Liter a- 
ture, hi. 137. 

45 D'Alembert (1717-83). For particulars of his life, see Brougham's 
memoir in Lives of Men of Letters. For his philosophy, see Damiron, ii. 
1-114; Henke, vi. 218; Schlosser, i. 4. § 7. His infidelity was known to 
friends, but not openly avowed. 

46 Marmontel (1723-99). See Sainte-Beuve, Portraits, vol. iv. ; 
Schlosser, ii. 2. § 1. 

47 Grimm, 1723-1807. See Sainte-Beuve, vol. vii. The Correspon- 
danee Litt. par le Baron Grimm et Diderot is the great source for the 
knowledge of his character. 

4tt St. Lambert (1717-1803). See Damiron, ii. 144-256. 

40 Abbe Raynal (1711-96). See Schlosser, ii. 2. § 1. Henke, vol. vi, 
enumerates many more of the same class. Particulars of all are given in 
the Biographie tlniverselle. 

50 The following refer to places where the tendency and spirit of this 
whole movement are described, as well as literary information supplied. 
Henke, vi. 208, &c. ; Bartholmess, i. 117-210; Lerminier's Influence de la 
Phil, dn 18c ^iecle (1833); MorelFs Hist, of Phil. i. 158, &c. ; Maurice, 
Mod. Phil. p. 527-59 ; II. Martin's Hist, de France, vol. xv. and xvi. liv. 



LECTURE V. 179 

Diderot, 51 next to Yoltaire, was the most able of the 
infidel writers, and greatly superior to the other mem- 
bers of the same class. His history is one of those nar- 
ratives of struggle and suffering which so often have 
been the lot of men of letters. Those who have been 
the teachers of the world have too often been also its 
martyrs. The great peculiarity of Diderot, as of John- 
son, was his encyclopedic knowledge, and his versatili- 
ty in comprehending a variety of subjects. Less criti- 
cal than Yoltaire, and less philosophical than Rousseau, 
he exceeded both as the practical teacher. But in un- 
belief he unhappily advanced farther than either ; his 
temper lacked moral earnestness ; and in later life he 
was an atheist. A growth of unbelief may be traced 
in him : at first he was a doubter, next he became a 
deist, lastly an atheist. In the first stage he only trans- 
lated English works, and even condemned some of the 
English deists. His views seem gradually to have al- 
tered, probably under the influence of Yoltaire's wri- 
tings, and of the infidel books smuggled into France; 
and he thenceforth assumed a tone bolder and marked 
by positive disbelief. In 1746 he wrote his Pensles 
Philosophiques, intended to be placed in opposition to 
the JPensees of Pascal. Pascal, by a series of sceptical 
propositions, had hoped to establish the necessity of re- 
velation. Diderot tried by the same method to show 
that this revelation must be untrue. 52 The first portion 
of the propositions 53 bore upon philosophy and natural 

9G, 99, 100, 101 ; Renouvier, Mod. Phil. b. v. ch. 2. § 6-8 ; also Kuno 
Fischer's Bacon, p. 451, and the references above given to Schlosser and 
to Daniiron ; Teniiemann (Manual, § 378, &c.) also gives many literary- 
references. 

51 Diderot (1*713-84). His life and character have been sketched by 
Carlyle, (Misc. Works, vol. iv.) ; also by Daniiron, ii. (227-324) ; St. Beuve, 
i. 355. Also see Villemain, Tableau de la Litt. au 18e siecle, lee. xix. 20. 
His novels are the parent of the impure novel of modern times. See 
Schlosser, i. 4. § 5, ii. 2. § 1. 

52 In the Essai sur le Merite et la Vertu, pp. 73, 87, he allows deism, 
the God of moral order. Similarly in the Pensees Philos. § 46, but it is 
the God. of nature. But in the Dialogue with D'Alembert he teaches 
atheism. On his theological views see Damiron, ii. 261 seq 

53 § 25, &c. 



180 LECTUEE V. 

religion, but at length he came to weaken the proofs 
for the truth of Christianity, and controverted miracles, 
and the truth of any system which reposes on miracles ; 
yet even in this work he did not evince the atheism 
which he subsequently avowed. • It was soon after the 
imprisonment in which he was involved by this book, 
that he projected the plan of the magnificent work, the 
Encyclopedia or universal dictionary of human know- 
ledge. Its object however was not only literary, but 
also theological ; for it was designed to circulate among 
all classes new modes of thinking, which should be op- 
posed to all that was traditionary. Voltaire's unbe- 
lief was merely destructive : this was reconstructive and 
systematic. The religion of this great work was deism :' 
the philosophy of it was sensationalist and almost ma- 
terialist ; seeming hardly to allow the existence of any- 
thing but mechanical beings. Soul was absorbed in 
body ; the inner world in the outer ;— a tendency fostered 
by physics. It was the view of things taken by the sci- 
entific mind, and lacks the poetical and feeling elements 
of nature — a true type of the cold and mechanical age 
which produced it. Diderot's atheism is a still further 
development of his un belief. It is expressed in few of his 
writings, and presents no subject of interest to us ; save 
that it seeks to invalidate the arguments for the being 
of a God, drawn from final causes. It has been well 
observed, that the lesson to be derived from him 54 is, 
that the mechanical view of the world is essentially 
atheistic ; that whosoever will admit no means of dis- 
covering God but common logic, cannot find him. 
Diderot's unbelief may be considered to embody that 
which resulted from the abuse at once of erudition, phys- 
ical science, and the sensational theory in metaphysics. 
Among the band of friends who from connexion 
with the Encyclopaedia acquired the name of Encyclo- 
paedists, was also Helvetius. 65 ■ He was the moralist of 

54 See Carlyle, Misc. Works, iv. 322. 

55 Helvetius (1715-1771). See C. Remusat in Rev. des Deux Mondes, 
Aug. 15, 1858. On the circle of Helvetius see Carlyle ut sup. 287 seq. ; 
and on their atheism Buckle, i. 78G seq. Concerning Helvetius himself 



LECTURE V. 181 

the sensational philosophy, one of those who applied the 
philosophy of Condillae to morals. Each man's tastes 
are so far affected by circumstances, that it is possible 
that Helvetius's exclusive association with the selfish 
circles of the French society, which never lived for the 
good of others, together with the perception of the hol- 
lowness of the respect which persons paid him for his 
w T ealth and influence, led him to regard self-love as the 
sole motive of conduct. His philosophy is expressed 
in two works ; 56 the one on the spirit, the other on man : 
the former a theoretical view of human nature, the lat- 
ter a practical view of education and society. His 
primary position is, that man owes all his superiority 
over animals to the superior organization of his body. 
Starting from this point, he argues that all minds are 
originally equal, and owe their variation to circum- 
stances ; 57 that all their faculties and emotions are deri- 
vable from sensation ; that pleasure is the only good, 
and self-interest the true ground of morals and the 
framework of individual and political right. 68 

If in Diderot we have met with atheism, and in Hel- 
vetius with the selfish theory of morals ; in the author of- 
" the System of Nature" we meet with utter materialism, 
and the two former evils as corollaries from it. This 
work, which was published about 1774, though bearing 
a different author's name on the title, was probably the 
work of D'Holbach, 59 aided by Diderot and Helvetius, 

see Riser's Christliche Philos. viii. b. ix. ch. 2 ; Cousin's Hist, de Phil. 
Morale, lecon 7 ; Schlosser, i. 4. § 6. 

56 Viz., De V Esprit et de I Homme ((Euvres compl. 1818, vol. i. and 
ii.). Both treatises are excellently analysed in the table of contents pre- 
fixed to the work. The allusions in the text here may be thought to fail 
from their brevity in showing that Helvetius's opinions were a logical corol- 
lary from his principles ; they cannot at least give any notion of the great 
power of analysis exhibited by him in expressing his own views. 

57 In Discourse ii. 58 Id. 

69 D'Holbach (1723-89). The Systhne de la Nature bears the name 
of a Mirabaud, secretary to the Academy. Some have thought it to be 
written by Robinet, author of a similar work. (His works are discussed in 
Damiron, ii. 480 seq.) Concerning the work see Villemain, iii. lee. 38; 
Damiron, i. (93-177); Ritter, Christ. Philos. viii. b. 9. ch. 3; Schlosser, 
i. 4. § 1. On D'Holbach's view of God see Damiron, Id. p. 155, &c. ; 
Buckle, i. 787, note. The Systhne de la Nature is partly analysed and 



182 LECTURE V. 

and other members, of the society which met at D'Hol- 
baeh's house. It is a work of unquestionable talent and 
eloquence, in which materialism, fatalism, and atheism, 
combine to form a view of human nature which even 
Yoltaire is said to have denounced. 

The grand object of this work being to show that 
there is no God, the first part is occupied by the most 
rigorous materialism, and is designed to prove that 
there is no such thing as mind, nothing beyond the 
material fabric, 60 which is maintained by simple and 
invariable laws ; and that the soul is a mode of organ- 
ism, 61 the mere action of the body under different func- 
tions. The freedom of the will 62 and immortality 63 are 
accordingly denied. The first part having been direct- 
ed to disprove the existence of mind, the second part is 
designed against religion. The author attributes the 
idea which man has formed of a first Cause to fear, 64 
generated through suffering ; and attempts to show the 
insufficiency of the a priori argument in favour of a 
God, 65 omitting the consideration of the arguments de- 
rived from final causes. Nature becomes in his scheme 
a machine ; man an organism ; morality self-interest ; 
deity a fiction. 

The work we have just named formed the crown- 
ing result of infidelity. 66 Yoltaire showed philosophy 
shrinking from the hard materialism, morality from 
the fatalism, and religion from the atheism, to which 
they afterwards attained. In these steps, as witnessed 
in the circle of intellect just sketched, we see the rami- 
fication of the French sensational philosophy pushed to 
its farthest limits. 

criticised in Brougham's Discourse on Natural Tficology, pp. 232-47. 
It comprised two volumes, and is followed by a volume containing three 
small treatises relating to the natural principles of morals, and social 
philosophy. The work was refuted by Bergier (1*7 *7l). 

60 Partie l t>re ch. hi. and iv. 

61 Part ii. ch. vii. 62 Part ii. ch. xi. 
63 Part i. ch. xiii. C4 Part ii. ch. i. 
f ' 5 Id. ch. iv. and v. 

60 Damiron discusses, in addition to the writers already named, two or 
three others, viz., Naigeon, Sylv. Marechal, and De la Lande, whose names 
are not introduced here into the text. 



LECTURE V. 183 

The writers lately described, though in some degree 
eminent, do not, like Yoltaire, stand in the first rank 
of the French literary writers. Amid the circle of 
unbelievers, however, another of the highest rank 
was found, who, though he must be classed with the 
others, stood so apart in taste, in sympathy, in purpose, 
and in belief, that the study of his life and character 
is an interruption to the series of the materialist writers 
whom we are describing. Eousseau 07 was not an athe- 
ist like Diderot, nor a materialist like D'lf olbach, nor a 
moralist of the selfish school like Helvetius, nor a scoff- 
er like Yoltaire. We discover in him a spirit endowed 
with deep feeling, and trained by much greater expe- 
rience of life and of internal sorrow. His writings also 
mark the period when French philosophy ceased to at- 
tack the church, and found itself strong enough to act 
against the state. The greater portion of his works lies 
out of the range of our inquiry. Even his political 
writings, which indirectly injured religion in the world 
of action by stimulating the revolutionary hatred to the 
church, require notice oidy so far as they involved prin- 
ciples fundamentally opposed to the teaching of reveal- 
ed religion. 

It was about the middle of the century 68 that Rous- 
seau commenced the "Political Essays" which made 
his name famous, and unhappily afterwards formed as it 
were the very bible of the French revolution. Retain- 
ing through life the preference for the simple institutions 
of the republic in which he had been born, he saw in 

67 On Rousseau see Villemain ii. lecon (23-24) ; Brougham's life of 
him in Men of Letters ; Bartholmess, i. 233-270; Henke, vi. 232, especially 
p. 253, which refers to his theology ; Schlosscr, i. 4. § 4, and ii. § 2 ; St. 
Marc Girardin on the Emile in Rev. des Deux Mondes, Dec. 1854 ; and an 
article, too favourably written, but full of information, in the Westminster 
Review, Oct. 1859, which has been of much use for this lecture. 

6b The chief facts of Rousseau's life are these: — Born 1712 ; came to 
Paris, 1741 ; wrote Sur les Sciences et les Arts, 1750 ; LHnegalite parmi les 
Jtommes, 1753 ; lived in the Paris coteries, 1754-60; wrote Nouvelle 
Heloise, 1760; Le Gontrat Social, 1761, and Emile; an exile in Switzer- 
land 1762, where he wrote Retires de la Montague; accompanied Hume to 
England 1776; wrote his Confessions ; returned to the Continent 1767; 
died 1770. 



184: LECTUKE V. 

French society the abuses which appertain to civiliza- 
tion ; and, with somewhat of the same feeling which 
Tacitus exhibits in his portraiture of the Germans, was 
led to study the comparative advantages of a primitive 
•and refined age, and to maintain the paradox that the 
empire of corruption and inequality was to be regarded 
as the artificial creation of civilization. Ignoring the 
natural sinfulness and selfishness of the human race, he 
sought deliverance for mankind in the return to a pri- 
meval state, in which all should be free, equal, and inde- 
pendent. The inartificial state of society was the beau- 
ideal. And from this philosophical origin he traced 
society in the historical formation of an actual polity, 
describing how the social contract, while subordinating 
individual liberty to the collective will of a society, re- 
compensed men by investing them with rights of civil- 
ization. 

His doctrine was false theologically in its view of 
human nature ; false philosophically in attempting to 
investigate an historical question by means of abstract 
metaphysical analysis ; and false politically in drawing 
the attention of men away from practical and possible 
schemes of reform to visionary ones. It typified the 
movement of the French revolution in its extravagant 
hopes and its errors,, in its destructive, not its remedial 
aspect. 61 * 

It was a few years later than the publication of these 
speculations that Rousseau wrote his celebrated treatise 

63 There ore some good remarks on this theory in the article in the 
Westminster Review before quoted, the substance of which is to show that 
Rousseau's doctrine was false in its method and in its tendencies. It marked 
the stage of inquiry, indicative of the last part of the last century, when 
men, ignoring the teaching of history, strove to solve problems by means 
of abstract speculations ; the attempt to study the origin of phenomena in- 
stead of the facts of their progressive manifestation. The social contract 
is nothing but the description of the collective development to which 
society tends. The scheme was visionary : but, as a protest against unjust 
monopolies which existed in that age, it woke up a response in society (cfr. 
Mill on Liberty, p. 4*7-50) ; and in its tendency it made Rousseau the pre- 
cursor of the French revolution ; but in typifying that movement it repre- 
sented only its transient . aspect of subversive energy, not its work of 
political reformation. 



LECTUEE V. 185 

on education, the JEmilc™ which 'is the chief source for 
ascertaining Lis religious opinions. It has been called 
the Cyropsedia of modern times, an attempt to show 
the education which a philosopher would give his pupil, 
in contradistinction to the religious and Jesuit training 
common in Rousseau's time. 

In examining the religious education to be given 
to the young, he introduces a Savoyard vicar, the origi- 
nal of which his own early travels had suggested to him, 
to narrate the history of his convictions, and explain the 
nature of his creed. This creed is deism, and bears a 
very striking resemblance to that taught by the Eng- 
lish deists. Rejecting tradition and philosophy, 71 the 
vicar grounds his creed on reason, the interior light. 
Commencing with sensation,, he shows how step by step 
we arrive at the doctrine of the being and attributes of 
one God. Though he does not reject the argument 
from final causes, he seems to lay more stress on the 
metaphysical argument of the necessity of the divine 
existence. He first proves the existence of personality 
and will, 72 and uses this idea for the purpose of explor- 
ing the outer world ; arguing that matter is inert and 
not self-active, he regards matter in motion as indicat- 
ing force, and therefore volition ; uniformity in its mo- 
tion as proving a law, and therefore an intelligent will, 73 
in which wisdom, power, and goodness combine. 74 This 
being is God, to whom man is subject. The universe is 
universal order. The physical evil therein originates in 
our vices, the moral in our free will. 75 

Having established the being of a God, he next 
proceeds to give reasons for believing in immortality. 
He bases it on the fact of the goodness of God, which 
leads Him to recompense with happiness . the suffering 

70 Emile, b. iv. (See (Euvres, vol. iv. p. 14-119, ed. Paris, 1823, by 
Musset-Patbay.) 

71 Id. p. 17-20. 

72 Id. p. 22-30. 

73 JEmile, p. 33 : " Si la matiere mue me montre une volonte, la 
matiere mue, selon de certaines lois me montre une intelligence. C'est 
mon second article de foi." 

74 P. 34, 36. 75 P. 40-49. 



186 LECTURE V. 

good ; and he disbelieves the eternity of punishment 
for the bad. 76 Having fixed the objects of belief, he next 
lays down the rule of duty in conscience, which he re- 
gards as an innate and infallible guide. 77 After thus 
establishing natural religion, he proceeds to criticise 
revealed, arguing its want of irrefragable evidence, 78 
the discrepant 79 opinions in reference to it, the improb- 
ability of portions of its history ; 80 attacking strongly 
the external evidence of prophecy and miracles ; the 
former on the alleged want of proof of agreement be- 
tween prophecy and its fulfilment ; the latter on the 
ground of the alleged circle, that miracles are made to 
prove doctrine, and doctrine miracles. 81 He accordingly 
rejects the idea of Christianity being necessary to sal- 
vation ; but renders a tribute of praise to its moral pre- 
cepts, and regards the gospels, though partly fictitious, 
as containing indestructible moral truths; and con- 
cludes with the well-known comparison of Socrates to 
Christ, showing the stupendous superiority of the death 
and example of the latter. " If the death of Socrates," 
he says, " was that of a sage, that of Jesus was that of 
a God." 83 

It would have been thought that such teaching as 
this would hardly have excited a legal prosecution, in 
comparison with the more violent attacks that w r ere 
made on religion : but the wide reputation and .fas- 
cinating style of the author, the extraordinary ability 
of the work, above all the fact that many of the pre- 
vious infidel doctrines had been published without the 
writers' names, were the means of subjecting him to 
persecution which they escaped. Voltaire and the in- 
fidel party were indignant at Eousseau's partial ac- 
ceptance of Christianity. The French clergy were 
angry at his rejection of the remainder. The parlia- 
ment ordered the book to be burned, and the author to 
be imprisoned. Rousseau had to seek refuge in Switzcr- 

76 P. 50-53. 

" P. 57-75. 78 P. 83-86. 7t P: 75-119. 

*° P. 80, &c. 81 T. 86. 

82 Emile, pp. 105-107. 



LECTURE V. 187 

land, and there defended his views of Christianity and 
miracles in a series of celebrated letters, which in their 
political effects have been compared with the letters of 
Junius. Driven out from Switzerland, he found a 
shelter in England, with Hume; and, until he could 
safely return to France, employed his time in writing 
his Confessions'™ — the celebrated work, a mixture of 
romance and fact, which takes its place in the first 
rank of autobiographies, — a sad witness to the despe- 
rate wickedness of the human heart, and to the impo- 
tence of even a high moral creed, which we know 
Rousseau elsewhere expressed, 84 in creating morality, 
without Christian motives to give practical efficacy 
to it. 

Such was Rousseau, an enemy of artificial society, 
of Roman catholic education, and of supernatural reve- 
lation ; yet far removed from "Voltaire and the other 
infidels, both in tone and literary character. 85 While 
Voltaire aimed only to destroy, Rousseau sought to 
reconstruct. Voltaire was a flippant, hasty reviler of 
Christianity, without originality in the material of his 
works, without depth of soul : Rousseau was serious, 
fresh, full of pathos. Voltaire either had no creed, or 
thought one unimportant, and was actuated by ma- 

63 The comparison of the statements of the Confessions with fragments 
of Rousseau lately published, shows that many statements which they con- 
tain in reference to other persons is false. The statement in the text is 
made in deference to the opinion latterly stated (e. g. in Heine's Allemagne), 
that there is a general air of romance pervading the work. If the statements 
in reference to himself are untrue, the narrative is only a greater proof of 
the immorality of the author. The supposition however seems ground- 
less. The defender of Rousseau, G. H. Morin (Essai, 1851), does not 
exculpate his author by impeaching the historical truthfulness of the Con- 
fessions. 

64 The high moral standard is not of course seen in the Confessions, 
which show Rousseau to have been the incarnation of selfishness, and much 
worse than most of the other unbelievers, but is exhibited in the Emile. 
The fact that the author of the latter work could write the former is a sad 
example of a man knowing, like the ancient heathens, how to do good and 
doing it not. 

b6 Henke (vi. p. 267 seq.) draws out the comparison of Voltaire with 
Rousseau in an excellent manner. Coleridge {Friend, vol. i. 165-186) 
has given a comparison of Voltaire with Erasmus, and of Rousseau with 
Luther. 



188 LECTURE V. 

lignant hatred against Judaism and Christianity : Rous- 
seau had a firm creed, and spoke with decency of the 
religion which he rejected. Yoltaire was devoid of 
taste for ancient literature, witty under a mask, a self- 
ish sycophant to the ancient political regime : Rous- 
seau never denied the authorship of his writings, was 
democratic in tastes, and was the means of exciting a 
love for antiquity. Finally rejecting to a great degree 
the sensational philosophy ; rising above it in heart, if 
not in thought, Rousseau taught a spiritual philosophy, 
destined to bear fruit when the dreams of the revo- 
lution had passed. lie stands alone however at pres- 
ent in this respect, like Montesquieu in politics 86 and 
Buifon in science ; and the course of our history again 
brings before us men who must be classed with the 
materialists that preceded him.' 

We have stated that by the middle of the century 
the infidel writers turned their attention from the at- 
tack on the church to that on the state ; and had al- 
ready made such impression on the government, that it 
joined them in expelling the Jesuits. 87 For more than 
a quarter of a century before the revolution the literary 
writers were infidel. At length the evils of the state 
grew incurable, and the storm of the revolution burst. 

It is possible in the present age to take a much 
more dispassionate view of that vast event than was 
taken by contemporaries. 88 It can now be adjusted to 
its true historic perspective, and its function in the 
scheme of history can be clearly perceived. The vast- 
ness of the movement consisted in this, that it was at 
once political, social, and religious. 89 It aimed at re- 
dressing the grievances under which France had 
suffered, and reconstructing society with guarantees 
for future liberty. It sought not merely to destroy 

80 Sec Villemain, i. 14, 15., ii. 22; Sehlosser, i. 2. § 2., 4. § 3, and ii. 
2. § 2. 

~ 87 See Buckle, i. (112-183). 

88 Compare Maeaulay's remarks in reference to the Revolution, Essays 
(ed. 8vo. 1843), ii. 215, &c. 

811 For the causes of the revolution compare the statements of Alison, 
Hist, of Europe, i. ch. ii. and hi., and Buckle, i. (83G-S50). 



LECTURE V. 189 

the feudalism which had outlived its time, and to 
equalize the unfair distribution of the public burdens, 
as means to accommodate society to modern wants ; 
but it tried to effect these changes among a people 
whose minds w^ere fully persuaded both that the privi- 
leges of particular classes and the existence of an estab- 
lished religion were the chief causes of the public 
misfortune. When so many movements combined, 
the catastrophe was intensified. It is indeed possible 
now to see that in the end the solid advantages of the 
revolution were reaped, while the mischief was tempo- 
rary ; but the severity of the storm while it lasted was 
increased by the infidel views with which society had 
become impregnated. For the revolution attempted 
to embody in its political aspect those poetical but 
wild theories of society which sceptical students had 
taught ; and was founded on the false assumption of 
the perfectibility of man, and the perfect goodness of 
human nature, except as depraved by human govern- 
ment. 

At first, under the National Assembly ; the attack 
was only made on the property of the church ; but on 
the establishment of the Convention, when the na- 
tion had become frantic at the alarm of foreign inva- 
sion, to which the king and clergy were supposed to be 
instrumental, the monarchy was overthrown, and reli- 
gion also was declared obsolete. The municipality and 
many of the bishops abjured Christianity ; the churches 
were stripped ; the images of the Saviour trampled 
under foot ; and a fete was held in November 1Y93, 91 in 
which an opera-dancer, impersonating Eeason as a god- 
dess, was introduced into the Convention, and then led 
in procession to the cathedral of Notre Dame ; and there, 
elevated on the high altar, took the place of deity, and 
received adoration from the audience. The service's of 
religion were abandoned ; the churches were closed ; the 

90 On the incipient hostility to religion in the National Assembly, see 
Alison, vol. ii. ch. v. § 46, Id. § 32-35. On the full development of it in 
the Convention, see Id. iv. ch. xiv. § (45-48). 

91 Nov. 9. 



190 LECTUKE V. 

sabbath was abolished ; and the calendar altered. On 
all the public cemeteries the inscription was placed, 
" Death is an eternal sleep." Robespierre himself saw 
the necessity for the public recognition of the being of 
a God ; and after the fall of the Girondists, obtained an 
edict for that purpose shortly before his death, in 1794 ; 
which event marks the return of society from atheism 
and materialism back to deism. 93 "When the horrors of 
the dictatorship of Robespierre closed, and a regular gov- 
ernment was established under the Directory, the priests 
obtained liberty to reopen the churches- provided they 
maintained them at their own expense. 93 But the 
great majority of the people lived wholly without God 
in the world ; while some sought ref age in the extrava- 
gant creed of a deist sect called the Theophilanthro- 
pists. 9 * ISTor was it till the year 1802 that Napoleon 
was able, and even then amid much opposition, to 
reestablish the Sunday. 95 Christianity was then re- 
inaugurated by a public ceremony 96 in the cathedral, 
polluted eight- years before by the blasphemy of the 
goddess of Reason. But the total cessation of religious 
instruction snapped asunder a chain of faith which had 
descended unbroken from the first ages; and to this 
must be ascribed the irreligious mode of spending the 
Sunday in French society. 

The reign of atheism in religion was fortified by a 
philosophy ; and the works of one infidel writer pre- 
serve the expression of the view which it took of Chris- 
tianity and religion. As soon as the excitement of the 
revolution allowed leisure to return to the study of men- 
tal facts, there arose the extreme form of sensationalism, 
which was called (in a different meaning from the pres- 

92 Concerning this act of Robespierre, see Alison, iv. ch. xv. § 23, 24, 2*7. 
a3 On the state of religion under the Directory, see Alison, vol. v. ch. 
xix. § 41, and vol. vir ch. xxiv. § 19. 

94 See M. Gregoire's Ilistoire de la Tluophilanihropic, forming part of 
his Ilistoire des Scctcs Helic/., and the notice of it in the Quarterly Review, 
No. 5o. Also the references in Alison, vi. ch. xxiv. § 1 ( J; Staiidlin, Gea- 
chichte des Rationalismus und Supernat. 1820, (44-54.) 

95 On the state under Napoleon, see Alison, viii. ch. xxxv. § 1, and 
30-40. 

9ti April 11, 1802. 



LECTURE V. 191 

ent popular use of the term) Ideology, (24). Cabanis 
and Destutt de Tracy are the best exponents of its 
physiological and psychological aspects ; and the well- 
known Yolney of its moral and religious side. Start- 
ing from the principles of Condillac and Helvetius, 
that the very faculties as well as ideas are derived from 
sensation, and moral rules from self-love, it almost 
reaches the same point as D'Holbach. Mental science 
was approached from the physiological side, and so 
viewed that mind seemed to be made a property of 
brain." 

The chief work in which Yolney expresses his un- 
belief is entitled the " Ruins, or Meditations on the 
[Revolutions of Empires." 98 It is a poem in prose. Yol- 
ney imagines himself falling into a meditation, amid 
the ruins of Palmyra, on the fall of empires." The 
phantom of the ruins appears, and, entering into con- 
verse with him, causes him to see the kingdoms of the 
world, and guides him in the solution of the mysteries 
which puzzle him. 1 It unveils to him the view of nature 
as a system of laws, and of man as a being gifted with 
self-love. It traces the origin of society in a manner 
not unlike Rousseau, 2 and refers the source of evil to 
self-love; states the cause of ancient prosperity and 
decline, and draws the moral lesson from the past, 3 
"While Yolney is despondent at the prospect of the 
future, a vision is unveiled to him of a new age. It is 
of a nation ridding itself of privileged classes, and 
arming itself when its young liberties were threatened 
by foreign powers. 4 It is an apocalyptic vision of 
France in his time. Then suddenly the vision changes, 
and an assembly of the nations of the world is gathered 
as in one common arena, to ascertain how they may 
arrive at unity and peace. 5 Their differences are ilius- 

97 See Morell, Hist, of Phil vol. i. ch. iv/§ 2. 

98 Les Ruines ou Meditations stir les Revolutions des JEmpir.es (1791.) 
A. similar view of religion is taken in Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes, 
1795. 

99 Ch. ii. ' > Ch. iii. 2 Ch. v. 

3 Ch. vii-xii. 4 Ch. xv. 9 Ch. xix. 



1&2 . LECTURE V. 

trated by the discrepant opinions which they utter on 
religion ; and the origin of each religion on the earth 
is traced. 6 It is here that Yolney makes his speaker 
convey his own scepticism. lie tracks the origin of the 
religions ideas 7 through the worship, prompted by fear 
of the physical elements 8 and the stars 9 to that of symbols 
or idols, 10 with its accompanying mysteries and orders 
of priests ; and then onward through dualism 11 to the be- 
lief of an unseen world ; 12 then through mythology 13 and 
pantheism 14 to the belief in a Creator ; 15 next, to Ju- 
daism 6 as the worship of the soul of the world ; .and 
lastly, through the Persian 17 and Hindu 18 systems to 
Christianity, 1 * which he attempts to show to be the wor- 
ship of the sun under the cabalistic names of Christ 
and Jesus. Availing himself of seme of the fragments 
of mythology which such writers as Eusebius have pre- 
served, and with a faint perception of the nature of 
mythology, he tries to resolve the narrative of the fall 
of man into solar mythology ; and, pointing to contact 
with the Persians at the captivity as the source from 
which the Jews borrowed their ideas of a symbolic 
system, he regards the incarnation and life of Christ 
as the mistaken literalization on the part of contempo- 
raries of their preconceived opinions. The conclusions 
to which Yolney makes his interlocutor come 20 is, that 
nothing can be true, nothing be a ground of peace and 
union, which is not visible to the senses. Truth is 
conformity with sensations. The book is interesting as 
a work of art ; but its analysis of Christianity is so 
shocking, that its absurdity alone prevents its becoming 
dangerous. It is the most unblushing attempt to re- 
solve the noblest of effects into the most absurd of 
origins.; and embodies in the consideration of religion 
the school of philosophy which he represented. 

6 Ch. xx. &c. 

■> Ch. xxil p. 218. 8 P. 226. 9 P. 232. 

10 P. 238. " P. 255. ,2 P. 262. 

13 P. 268. 14 P. 274. 16 P. 277. 

16 P. 285. n P. 286. 1B P. 287. 

19 P. 2S8. 20 Ch. xxiv. p. S20. 



LECTURE V. 193 

We liave now completed the history of unbelief in 
France during the eighteenth century. We have seen 
how literature gradually emancipated itself from the 
power of the court, and, under the influence of a scep- 
tical stimulus received from the importation of English 
free thought, was changed into political and ecclesiasti- 
cal antipathy, and acquired a mastery over the public 
mind, until it involved the state, the. church, and Chris- 
tianity, in a common ruin. History offers no parallel 
instance of the victory of unbelief, through the power of 
the pen, nor of the union of the political with the theo- 
logical movement, 'and of the intimate connexion of 
both with the current philosophy of the time. 

The theological movement has contributed nothing of 
permanent literary value. The few apologies written 
were unimportant ; and the thoughts of those who at- 
tacked Christianity were neither new nor characterised 
by depth. Their criticism was shallow, and was mark- 
ed by the feature of which traces were observed in. a few 
English authors, the disposition to charge imposture on 
the writers of the holy scriptures ; so that they not 
only failed to appreciate the literary excellence of the 
works, but scarcely even allowed the possibility of un- 
intentional deception on the part of the writers. The 
doubts were chiefly the reproduction of the English 
point of view, with the addition of a few physical diffi- 
culties; 21 protests of free thought against dogma in natu- 
ral science. The view entertained concerning deity was 
eventually grovelling ; the greatness of nature seemed 
to inspire no reverence. Unbelief gradually lost hold 
of monotheism ; and in doing so never ascended in gran- 
deur to the idea of pantheism, but fell into blank atheism. 
The theoretical morality of the English deists, even 
when depending on expedience, was noble; but in 
place of it the French school presented the lowest form 
of theory which ethical science has ever stated, and 
which finds its refutation with the philosophy that gave 
it birth. 

No age. exhibits a body of sceptical writers whose 

21 Such as the idea of the plurality of worlds suggested by Fonlenelle. 
9 



194 .LECTURE V. 

characters are so unattractive as the French unbelievers ; 
whose coarseness of mind in failing to appreciate that 
which is beautiful in Christianity is so evident, that 
charity could not forbid us to doubt, even if there were 
not independent proof, that faults of character contrib- 
uted very largely to the formation of their unbelief. 
Nevertheless, the political aspect of the movement carries 
a solemn warning to the Christian church, not to endan- 
ger the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God by making 
it the buttress to support corrupt political and ecclesias- 
tical institutions. It is true that Christ will not aban- 
don his true church. Whatever is divine and eternal- 
ly true will always as in this case survive the catastro- 
phe. But this period of history shows that Providence 
will not work a miracle to save religion from a tempo- 
rary eclipse, if the church forgets that Christ's kingdom 
is not of this world ; and that the mission which he has 
given it is to convert souls to him ; and that learning 
and piety are intellectual and moral means for effecting 
this object. 22 The political faults or shortcomings of 
the church are no apology for the infidelity of France ; 
but they must be taken into acconnt in explaining its 
intensity. 

A theological movement so vast could not fail to 
exercise an influence in other lands. Incidental allu- 
sions have already been made to its effects at the court 
of Prussia, 23 and to the traces of its tone in some of the 
later of the English deists. 

The remainder of this lecture will be employed in 
tracing the history of free thought in England, from the 
date at which the narrative was interrupted to a little 
later than the end of the century ; especially noticing 
the mode in which it was influenced by the movement 
in France. 

It will be remembered that we brought down the 



52 The apologetic literature of this period of the French church is not 
powerful. See Buckle, i. 692, note ; and Alison, i. 2. § 62. 
23 The influence on Germany will be seen in Lect. VI. 



LECTURE V. 195 

history of it as far as Hume. 24 ¥e paused there, be- 
cause deism then ends as a literary movement. Polities 
and new forms of literature absorbed the mind. Free 
thought continued to exist ; but it was less frequent- 
ly expressed in literature, and was considerably modi- 
fied bj foreign, influences. In Gibbon, about 1776, the 
ancient spirit of deism, the spirit of Bolingbroke, 
speaks, but the form is changed. Instead of denying 
Christianity on d priori moral considerations, he feels 
bound to explain facts. The attack is not so much 
moral as historic. The inquiry into historical ori~ 
gines as well as logical causes has commenced. The 
mode of attack too has changed, as well as the point 
from which it is made. The French influence is visible 
in the satire and irony prevalent. There is no longer 
the bitter moral indignation of the early English deists, 
but -the sneer that marks the spirit of contempt. Fear 
and hatred of Christianity have given way to philoso- 
phical contempt. (25) 

In Thomas Paine, who wrote in France in the midst 
of the meeting of the French Convention, we meet a 
nearer reproduction of the" spirit of early English deism, 
but he has even more than Gibbon caught the spirit of 
the French movement. Gibbon's scepticism is that of 
high life ; Paine's of low. The one writer sneers, the 
other hates. The one is a philosopher, the other* a poli- 
tician. Paine represents the infidel movement of Eng- 
land when it had spread itself among the lower orders, 
and mingled itself with the political dissatisfaction for 
which unhappily there was supposed to be some ground. 
Paine's spirit is that of English deism animated by 
the political exasperation which had characterised the 
French. His doctrines come from English deism ; his 
bitterness from Yoltaire ; his politics from Pousseau. 

Within the limits of the present century two other 
traces are found of the influence of the French school of 
infidelity, which therefore ought logically to be com- 
prised with it. The one is political, the other literary ; 

24 In Lect. IV. 



106 LECTURE V. 

viz. the socialist schemes of Owen, which in some re- 
spects seem to be derived by direct lineage from Paine, 
and the expression of unbelief in the poetry of Byron 
and Shelley. 

We must briefly notice these writers in succession. 

The first in the series is Gibbon. 25 Though he has 
left an autobiography, he has not fully unveiled the 
causes which shook his faith, and made him turn deist. 
We can however collect that the reaction from the 
doubts suggested by the perusal of Middleton's work 
on the subject of the cessation of miracles, then re- 
cently brought into notoriety, (26) turned him to the 
church of Rome ; and that his residence abroad and 
familiarity with French literature caused him to drift 
afterwards into the opposite extreme of scepticism. He 
did not become an atheist, like some of the French wri- 
ters whom we have been studying : but he seems to 
have given up the belief in the divine origin of Chris- 
tianity ; and he manifested the spirit of dislike and in- 
sinuation common in the unbelief of the time. 

He did not write expressly against Christianity ; 
but the subject came across Iris path in travelling over 
the vast space of time which he embraced in his mag- 
nificent History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire. It is a subject of regret to be compelled to 
direct hostile remarks against one who has deserved so 
well of the world. That work, though in the pageantry 
of its style 26 it in some sense reflects the art and taste 
of the age in which it was written, yet in its love of 
solid information and deep research is the noblest work 
of history in the English tongue. Grand alike in its 
subject, its composition, and its perspective, it has a 
right to a place among the highest works of human 
conception ; and sustains the relation to history which 
the works of Michael An^elo bear to art. In the fif- 



25 Gibbon (1737-1Y94). Sec Autobiography (Milman's edition 1839), 
ch. iii. p. 73, &c. 

26 Cfr. some remarks (p. 27, 28,) in an instructive paper on Gibbon in 
the National Review, No. 3, on the relation of his method and style to his 
age. 



LECTURE V. 197 

teenth and sixteenth' chapters of this work, Gibbon had 
occasion to discuss the origin of Christianity, and as- 
signed five causes for its spread ; viz. its internal doc- 
trine, and organization, miracles, Jewish zeal, and excel- 
lence of Christian morals. The chapters were received 
with denunciations. Yet those" who in later times 
have re-examined Gibbon's statements candidly admit 
that they can find hardly any errors of fact or inten- 
tional mis-statement of circumstances. 

The great mistake which he commits is obvious, and 
the cause hardly less so. The mistake is twofold : first, 
he attributes to the earliest period of Christianity that 
which was only true of a later ; and secondly, he con- 
founds the circumstances of the spread of Christianity 
with the cause wdiich gave it force. 28 The powerful in- 
fluence of the causes which he specifies cannot be doubt- 
ed ; 29 and we may hold it to be not derogatory to our 
religion that it admits of union with every class of effi- 
cient causes ; and adapts itself so fully to man's wants, 
as to accept the support of ordinary sources of influence. 
But the causes which he alleges operated far less strong- 
ly, and some of them not at all, in the primitive age of 
Christianity. The discussion of this period lay beyond 
Gibbon's purpose ; and as he dwelt wholly on the as- 
pects of a later age, he has left the impression that the 
earliest age partook of the same characteristics. Nor is 
he correct in regarding the five causes as solely efficient. 
There is a subtler force at work, of the operation of 
which they exhibit only the conditions. They reveal 
the mechanism, but do not explain the principle. With- 
out judging him as a theologian in omitting the theo- 
logical cause for an alleged supernatural power, he must 
be censured as a historian in failing to appreciate the 
spiritual movement at work in Christianity, the deep 
excitement of the spiritual faculty, the yearning of the 

27 Milman and Guizot. 

- 28 The first of these is explained by Dr. Milman, Preface to edition of 
Gibbon, p. 10, and the article in the Quarterly Review, No. 100. 

. 29 Cfr. Mackintosh (Life, i. 244), quoted by Milman in his edition of 
Gibbon, c. xv. first note. 



198 LECTUEE V. 

mind after truth and holiness. The same fault is ob- 
servable in his appreciation of religion generally, and 
not merely of Christianity. With the want of spiritual 
perception common to his age, he had not the ethical 
sensibility to appreciate the internal part of a religious 
system ; and hence he regards unworldly phenomena 
in the tone of the political world of his time. 

In pointing out his errors, we have hinted at their 
causes. The coldness which scepticism and sensational 
philosophy 30 had induced in his mind, which could kin- 
dle into warmth in describing the greatness either of 
men or of events, but not in depicting the moral excel- 
lence of Christianity, was but the reflection of the cold 
hatred of religious enthusiasm common in his day.' 
Nor would the historic views of primitive Christianity 
commonly entertained in his time tend to dissipate his 
error. For it was usual in that age of evidences- to re- 
gard the early converts as cold and cautious inquirers., 
accustomed to weigh evidences and suggest doubts. In 
attempting to discover the . doctrines and discipline of 
the English church in apostolic times, there was a dan- 
ger of transferring the notions of modern decorum to 
the marvellous outburst of enthusiastic piety and super- 
natural mystery which attended the communication of 
the heaven-sent message ; and therefore it is some pallh 
ation for Gibbon that he too failed to perceive that 
those were times of excitement, when new ideas fell on 
untried minds and yearning hearts. And it is a re- 
markable proof of the improved general conception 
which men now entertain of Christianity, that no ap- 
prehension of danger is now felt from Gibbon's views. 
The youngest student has imbibed a religious spirit so 
much deeper, that he cannot fail instinctively to per- 
ceive their insufficiency as an explanation of the phe- 
nomena. 31 

30 The remarks which follow are partly taken from the above-named 
article in the National Review (pp. 33-36). Nearly the same thing is said 
by Miss Iiennell in the fifth Baillie Prize Essay on the early Christian anti- 
cipation of the end of the world, 1860, a treatise which in other respects is 
very objectionable. 

81 Bp. Watson's Apology for Christianity was a reply to Gibbon, 



LECTURE V. 199 

One of our great poets has celebrated the two lite- 
rary exiles of the Leman lake. 32 But how different are 
our feelings in respect of them in relation to this sub- 
ject ! Both were deists ; but the one dedicated his life 
to a crusade against Christianity, the other only insinu- 
ated a few slight hints : . the one derived his faults from 
himself, the other from his age : the one, the type of 
subtlety, acted by his pen on the world political ; the 
other, the type of industry, sought to instruct the stu- 
dent. The writings of Voltaire remain as works of 
power, but not of information : Gibbon's history will 
endure as long as the English tongue. 

Paine is a character of a very different kind from 
the freethinker last named. 33 Instead of the polished 
scholar, the polite man of letters, and the historian, like 
Gibbon, we see in him an active man of the world, 
educated by men rather than books, of low tastes and 
vulgar tone, the apostle alike of political revolution 
and infidelity. Though a native of England, his ear- 
liest life was spent in America at the time of the war 
of independence. Returning to England with the 
strong feelings of liberty and freedom which had 
marked the revolt of the colonies, he wrote at the time 
of the outbreak of the French revolution a work called 
the Rights of Man, in reply to Burke's criticism on that 
event. Prosecuted for this work, he tied to France, 
and was distinguished by being the only foreigner save 
one 3 * elected to the French Convention. During its 
session he composed the infidel work called the Age of 
Reason, by which his name has gained an unenviable 
notoriety ; and after the alteration of political circum- 
stances in France, he returned to America, and there 
dragged out a miserable existence, indebted in his last 

1776. Dean Milman's notes to chapters xv. and xvi. of Gibbon are an 
excellent comment and criticism. 

32 Byron, Childe Harold, iii. 105-108. 

33 Paine (1737-1809), published Bights of Man, 1790; Age of Reason, 
1794. See the life by Cheetham, 1809, and Chalmers's Biographical 
Dictionary. Bp. Watson's Apology for the Bible was a reply to Paine 
(1798). 

34 Anacharste Clootz. 



200 LECTURE Y. 

illness for acts of charity to disciples of the very reli- 
gion that he had opposed. 

The two works, the Rights of Man, and the Age of 
Reason, being circulated' widely in England by the 
democratic societies of that period, contributed proba- 
bly more than any other books to stimulate revolution- 
ary feeling in politics and religion. 35 This popularity 
is owing partly to the character of the language and 
ideas,* partly to the state of public feeling. Manifesting 
much plebeian simplicity of speech and earnestness of 
conviction, they gave expression in coarse Saxon words 
to thoughts which were then passing through many 
hearts. They were like the address of a mob-orator in 
writing, and fell upon ground prepared. Political re- 
forms had been steadily resisted ; and accordingly, 
when the success of foreign revolution had raised men's 
spirits to the highest point of impatience, the middle 
classes, which wanted a moderate reform, were unfor- 
tunately thrown on the side of the wild and anarchical 
spirits that wished for utter revolution. The church, 
by holding with the state, was partly involved in the 
same obloquy. Paine's works, resembling Rousseau's 
•in purpose, though quite opposite in style, were as 
much adapted to the lower classes of England as his to 
the polished upper classes of France. 

The Age of Reason, was a pamphlet admitting of 
quick perusal. It was afterwards followed by a second 
part, in which a defence was offered against the replies 
made to the former part. The object of the two is to 
state reasons for rejecting the Bible, 36 and to explain 
the nature of the religion of deism, 37 which was pro- 
posed as a substitute. A portion is devoted to an at- 

35 The danger arising from republican clubs is described in Alison, iv. 
ch. xvi. § 6 ; and in W. Hamilton Reed's Rise and Dissolution of Infidel 
Societies in the Metropolis, 1800. See also the Report of the Committee 
of the House of Lords on them, 1801.' The works of Godwin on Political 
Justice, 1793, and of Mary Woolstcncraft on the Rights of Women, are 
generally adduced as illustrations of the prevalence of French political 
principles at that time in England. 

3B Part i. pp. 3-19, and part ii. pp. 8-S3. 

87 Part i. pp. 3, 4; 21-50; part ii. pp. 83-93. 



LECTURE V. 201 

tack on the external evidence of revelation, or, as the 
author blasphemously calls it, 38 " the three principal 
means of imposture," prophecy, miracles, and mystery ; 
the latter of which he asserts may exist in the physical, 
but not by the nature of things in the moral world. A 
larger portion is devoted to a collection of the various 
internal difficulties of the books of the Old and New 
Testament, and of the schemes of religion, Jewish and 
Christian. 39 The great mass of these objections are 
those -which had been suggested by English or French 
deists, but are stated with extreme bitterness. The 
most novel part of this work is the use which Paine 
makes of the discoveries of astronomy 40 in revealing the 
vastness of the universe and a plurality of globes, to 
discredit the idea of interference on behalf of this insig- 
nificant planet, — an argument which he wields espe- 
cially against the doctrine of incarnation. But no part 
of his work manifests such bitterness, and at the same 
time such a specious mode of argument, as his attack 
on the doctrine of redemption and substitutional atone- 
ment. 41 The work, in its satire and its blasphemous 
ribaldry, is a fit parallel to those of Yoltaire. Every 
line is fresh from the writer's mind, and written with 
an acrimony which accounts for much of its influence. 
The religion which Paine substituted for Christianity 
was the belief in one God as revealed by science, in im- 
mortality as the continuance of conscious existence, in 
the natural equality of man, and in the obligation of 
justice and mercy to one's neighbour. 42 

The influence of the spirit of Paine lingered in some 
strata of our population far into the present century : 
by means of the views of Owen, 43 the founder of Eng- 

38 P. 44. 39 Part ii. pp. 10-83. 

4 " Part i. pp. 3*7-44. This difficulty, first suggested by Fontenelle, ig 
met in the eloquent Astronomical Discourses (1822) of Chalmers. The 
controversy has been newly opened by the brilliant essay on the Plurality 
of Worlds (1853), supposed to be by Dr. Whewell, and pursued by Dr. 
Brewster (More Worlds than One), Professor Baden Powell (Essays on the 
Order of Nature), and by Professor H. S. Smith in the Oxford Ifssays, 
1855. 41 Page 20. 42 Part i. pp. 3, 4; p. 50. 

43 Robert Owen (1771-1858). About the year 1800 he became known 

9* 



202 LECTURE Y. 

lisli socialism, which essentially reproduce the visionary 
political reforms which belonged to the philosophy and 
to the doubt of the last century. 

Being desirous to improve the condition of the ii> 
dustrial classes, Owen speculated on the causes of evil ; 
and, approaching the subject from the extreme sensa- 
tional point of view, regarded the power of circum- 
stances to be so great, that he was led to regard action 
•as the obedience to the strongest motive. He thus in- 
troduced the idea of physical causation into the human 
will ; and made the rule of right to be each one's own 
pleasures and pains. Founding political inferences 
on this ethical theory of circumstantial fatalism, he pro- 
posed the system called socialism, which aimed at mod- 
ifying, temptations and removing, two great classes of 
temptations, by facilitating divorce, and proposing equal- 
ity of property. The system is now obsolete both in 
idea and in history, yet it has an interest from the cir- 
cumstance that until recently it deceived the minds and 
corrupted the religious faith of many of the manufac- 
turing population. 

The history of the influence of French infidelity on 
the course of English thought closes with names of 
greater note. 44 If Owen, though belonging to the pres- 
ent century, represents the political tone of the past, 

in connexion with schemes of industrial reform at the Lanark mills; and 
from 1813-19 conducted them as a social experiment to carry out his 
views. He attempted also to spread his opinions in America. After his 
return to England, by means of lectures and his work, The New Moral 
World, he taught them in the manufacturing towns ; and they were widely 
spread about the time of the Chartist movement (1839-41). His opinions 
maybe learned from his Essays on the Formation of Character (1818), 
which explain his Lanark system ; and especially his New Moral World, 
published about 1839. His religious opinions may be gathered from the 
Debate on the Evidences and on Society with A. Campbell, 1839. His 
autobiography was published in 1857, and a review of his philosophy by 
W. L. Sargeant, 1860. An article also related to him in the Westminster 
Review for Oct. 1860. See also Morell's History of Philosophy, i. 386 
seq. Mr. R. Dale Owen, son of the above, published several deist tracts in 
America, from about 1840-44. 

44 It has been considered unnecessary to name three other unimportant 
writers, Burgh, Farmer, a writer on the subject of Demoniacs, and Carlisle, 
who was prosecuted in 1 830. 



LECTURE V. 203 

we must also refer to the same period, morally though 
not chronologically, the spirit of unbelief which ani- 
mated literature in the poetry of Byron and Shelley. 

Saddened by blighted hopes, political and personal, 
Byron affords a type of the unbelief which is marked 
by despair. 45 If compared with the two exiles of the 
Leman lake, whom the sympathy of a common scepti- 
cism and common exile commended to his meditation, 
he stands in many respects widely contrasted with them 
in tone and spirit. Allied rather to Gibbon in serious- 
ness, he nevertheless wholly lacked his moral purpose 
and resolute spirit of perseverance. More nearly re- 
sembling Voltaire in the nature of his unbelief, he 
nevertheless differed in the features of gloom by which 
his mind was characterized. His unbelief was a rem- 
nant of the philosophic atheism of France ; but it re- 
ceived a tinge in passing through the wounded mind 
of the poet. 

His brother poet, of a still loftier genius, is more 
widely contrasted with him in mental qualities, than 
united by similarity in the character of his unbelief. 
Both were weary of the world ; but the one was drawn 
down by unbelief to earth, the other soared into the 
ideal : the one was driven to the gloom of despair, the 
other was excited by the imagination to the madness 
of enthusiasm.: the one' was made sad by disappoint- 
ment, the other was goaded by it into frenzy. 

Shelley merits more than a passing notice, both 
because his poetry is a proof of our main position con- 
cerning the influence of certain forms of philosophy in 
producing unbelief, and because his mental history, as 
learned by means of his works and memoirs, 'is a psy- 
chological study of the highest value. The infidelity 
which shows itself in him is an idolum specus, as well 
as an idolum theatric 



45 Byron (1788-1824). The Vision of Judgment, written in 1821, has 
been already referred to in Lecture III. as a vehicle for sceptical banter. 
For 'a brief comparison between the scepticism of Byron and Shelley, see 
remarks in the Westminster Review, April 1841, bv Mr. G. II. Lewes. 

46 Bacon, Nov. Org. Aph..52, 53. 



204 LECTURE V. 

His life, his natural character, and his philosophy, 
all contributed, to form his scepticism. 47 His life is a 
tale of sorrow and ruined hopes, 'of genius without wis- 
dom : one of the sad stories which will ever excite the 
sympathy of the heart. Early sent to this university, 
he seems like Gibbon to have lived alone ; and in the 
solitude of that impulsive and recluse spirit which 
formed his life-long peculiarity, to have nursed a spirit 
of atheism and wild schemes of reform. Charged by 
the authorities of his college with the authorship of an 
atheistical pamphlet, 48 he was expelled the university. 
An outcast from his family, he went forth to suffer 
poverty, to gather his livelihood as be could by the 
wonderful genius which nature had given him. 
"Wronged as he thought by his university and his coun- 
try, his wounded spirit imputed the supposed unkind- 
ness which he received to the religion which his enemies 
professed. In a foreign land, brooding over his wrongs, 
he cherished the bitter antipathy to priestcraft and 
to monarchy which finds such terrific expression in his 
poems. 49 His end was a fit close of a tragic life. A 
friendly hand paid the last office of friendship to his 
remains ; and the urn which contains the ashes of his 
pyre rests in the solemn and beautiful cemetery of the 
eternal city, which he himself had described so' strik- 
ingly in his affecting memorial of his friend, the poet 
Keats. 00 

His natural character contributed to produce his 

47 Shelley (1*792-1822). The materials are abundant for understand- 
ing the character and works of Shelley, in biographies both friendly and 
hostile. The second edition of the Shelley Memorials, by lady Shelley, 
1S59, contains an essay on Christianity by him. Several important articles 
in Reviews have been published in reference to him, among which it is 
desirable to call attention to the one in the National Revieio, No. 6, Oct. 
1856, which contains a very instructive analysis of his mental and moral 
character. It has been used in the few remarks which follow. 

48 The pamphlet appears to have been an anonymous statement of the 
weakness of the argument for the existence of deity ; negative rather than • 
positive. See the account of the transaction and its results in T. J. Hogg's 
Life of Shelley, 1858, vol. i. pp. (269-286). 

4U E. g. in the Ode to Liberty (§ 15 and 16), written in 1820. 
50 In the Adonais, § 49-51. For Shelley's own cremation and burial, 
sec the Memorials by lady Shelley, p. 201. 

A'ktdty.ty JJjtfy+umk. Shj.Uii*, ^ofafaa. !4*f^~*>- 






LECTURE V. 205 

scepticism not less than his life to increase it. He has 
left ns a clear delineation of himself in his writings. 
If considered on the emotional side, he was a creature 
of impulses. His predominant passion was an enthu- 
siastic desire to reform the world. Filled with the 
wildest ideas of the French revolution, his impulsive- 
ness hurried him on to give expression to them. His 
intellectual nature was analogous to the moral, and 
itself received a stimulus from it. His mental pecu- 
liarity was his power of sustained abstraction. His 
poems are not lyrics of life, but of an ideal world. His 
tendency was to insulate qualities or feelings, and hold 
them up to the mental vision as personalities. The 
words which he has addressed to his own skylark fitly 
describe his mind as it soared in the solitude of its ab- 
straction : 

Higher still and higher 

From the earth thou springest, 

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 

It has been well observed, that this tendency of the 
mind to personify isolated qualities or impulses, was 
essentially the mythological tendency 61 which had 
created the religion and expressed itself in the poetry 
of the Greeks, and possibly contributed to foster Shel- 
ley's sympathies with heathen religion. His mind was 
peculiarly Greek, simple not complex, imaginative 
rather than fanciful, abstract not concrete, intellectual 
not emotional ; wanting the many-sidedness of modern 
taste, partaking of the unity of science rather than the 
multiformity of nature, like sculpture rather than paint- 
ing. This mental peculiarity contributed to scepticism 
by inclining his mind to the pantheistic philosophy, 
which can never be held save by those whose minds can 
give being to an abstraction, and is revolting to those 
who are deeply touched with the Hebrew consciousness 
of personality and of duty. His philosophy was at 

51 This is well put in the Review above quoted, (p. 356), 



206 LECTURE V. 

first a form of naturalism, which identified God with 
nature, and made body and spirit co-essential. In 
this stage he oscillated between the belief of half per- 
sonified self-moved atoms, or a general pervading 
spirit of nature. From this stage he passed into a new 
one, by contact with the philosophy of Hume ; and, 
while admitting the diversity of matter and spirit, yet 
denied the substantial reality of both. In this state 
of mind he. studied the philosophy of Plato, which was 
originally designed for doubters somewhat analogous to 
him ; and he readily imbibed the theory that the pass- 
ing phenomena are types of eternal archetypes, embodi- 
ments of eternal realities. But it was Plato's view of 
the universe that he accepted, not his view of man ; his 
metaphysics, not his ethics. In none of these three 
theories is the rule of the universe ascribed to a charac- 
ter, but in each to animated abstractions. They are a 
pantheistic or mythological view of things. 52 !Nor was 
the effect of this philosophy merely theoretical, for the 
distorted view of the physical and moral cosmos led 
him to believe that both should be regulated by the 
same conditions ; that men should have the uncon- 
strained liberty which he thought he saw in material 
things. Like Rousseau, ascribing moral evil to the 
artificial laws of society, Shelley proposed to substitute 
a new order of things, in which man should be emanci- 
pated from kings and priests. This philosophy also 
increased his hatred against the moral order of the 
world, and especially against Christianity ; and led 
him to regard it as the offshoot of superstition and the 
impediment to progress. Yet even here, while echoing 
the irreverent doctrines of the French revolution, he 
bore an unconscious witness to the majesty of the 
Christian virtues, in that he could find no nobler type 
with which to invest his ideal race of men. 



b2 The Reviewer thinks that the first stage was in tone like Lucretius, 
i. e. Epicureanism. The second and third are described here in the text. 
The Queen Mab (end of first division) expressed the first stage; the 
first speech of Ahasuerus in the Hellas is a specimen of the second ; and 
the Adonais (43 and 52) of the third. 



LECTURE V. 207 

We- have dwelt long on Shelley, as a most instruc- 
tive example for observing the various influences, per- 
sonal and social, intellectual and moral, philosophical 
and political, combining to form unbelief. His thoughts 
are the last echo of the unbelief of the last century. 
The great movement of Germany has completely 
changed the scepticism of the present. The instances 
that we have found of unbelief in England were indi- 
cations of a tendency rather than a movement. They 
were however of sufficient importance to call forth the 
voices of the church in reply or in protest. 

It has been remarked, that in the former half of 
the eighteenth century the attack was chiefly directed 
against the internal doctrines and narratives of revela- 
tion, on the assumption that they clashed with the 
judgment of common sense, or of the moral faculty.. 
And therefore the writers on the evidences, adapting 
their defence to the attack, employed themselves chiefly 
in establishing the internal evidences, the moral need 
of a revelation generally, and the suitability of the 
Christian in particular, before producing the divine 
testimony which authenticates it. But about the 
middle of this century the historic spirit arose, and 
the point of attack shifted to an assault on the historic 
value of the literature which contains the ' revelation. 
The question thenceforth became a literary one, whether 
there was documentary proof that a revelation had 
been given. The defence accordingly ceased to be 
philosophical, and became historical. 03 

Opinions have changed with regard to the value 
of evidences in general, and the historic form of them 
in particular. When Boyle 54 at the end of the seven- 
teenth century, and Bampton and Hulse in the latter 

53 This contrast however in the evidences, though true in a general 
way, must not be pressed so as to imply an absolutely defined line of 
chronological separation between the two classes of evidence. 

54 Robert Boyle died in 1692, and founded the lecture by his last will. 
The lectures commenced in the same year. Bampton's were founded in 
1751 ; but none delivered till 1*780. Hulse died in 1790 ; but the lectures 
did not commence till 1820. A list of the lectures delivered in each series 
may be found in Darling's Cyclopaedia Bibliograpkica. 






208 LECTUKE V. 

half of tlie eighteenth, established their respective lec- 
tures, they looked forward to the probability of the oc- 
currence of new forms of doubt, and to the importance 
of reasoning as the weapon for meeting them. In more 
i recent times evidences have been undervalued, through 
the two opposite tendencies of the present age, the 
churchly and corporate tendency on the one hand, 
which rests on church authority, and the individualising 
tendency on the other, which rests on intuitive con- 
sciousness. 55 Evidences essentially belong to a theory, 
which places the test of truth objectively in a revealed 
book, and subjectively in the reason, as the organ for 
discovering morality and interpreting the book. 56 
While evidences in general have been undervalued for 
these reasons, the historic branch of them has been 
regarded as obsolete, because having reference only to 
an age which doubts the documents and charges the 
authors with being deceivers or deceived, and unavail- 
ing, like an old fortification, against a new mode of 
assault. This latter statement is in substance correct. 
It lessens the value of this argument as a practical 
weapon against the. doubts which now assail us, but 
does not detract from the literary value of the works 
in the special branch to which they apply. If the pro- 
gress of knowledge be the exciting cause of free thought, 
a similar alteration in the evidences would be expected 
to occur from causes similar to those which produce an 
alteration in the attack, independently of the change 
which occurs from the necessity of adjusting the one to 
the other. 

Abstract questions like this concerning the value 
of evidences find their solution independently of the 
human will. The human mind cannot be chained. 
New knowledge will suggest new doubts ; and if so, 

55 The remarks on evidence in Nos. 73 and 84 of the Tracts for the 
Times, and the tone assumed by the ultramontane writers of France, are 
instances of the undervaluing evidences from the former causes. The deist 
literature of the last century, and the writings of Carlyle in the present, 
are instances of that which arises from the latter. 

56 i. e. They belong essentially to the protectant stand-point in 
theology. 



LECTURE V. 209 

spirit must be combated by spirit. Defences of Chris- 
tianity, attempts to readjust it to new discoveries, must 
therefore continue to the end of time. In reference to 
the minor question of the value of the historic eviden- 
ces, it is important to remember that these grand works 
are not simply refutative ; they are indirectly instruc- 
tive and didactic. Just as miracles are a part of 
Christianity, as well as evidences for its truth, so apolo- 
getic is a lesson in Christianity, as well as a reply to 
doubt. 07 It happens also that the most modern doubt 
of Germany has assumed the historic line, has become 
critical instead of philosophical ; and, though the criti- 
cism is primarily of a different kind, it ultimately be- 
comes cajjable of refutation by the very line of argu- 
ment used in. the eighteenth century. ib We cherish 
therefore with devout reverence the memory of those 
writers who employed the power of the pen to defend 
the religion that they loved. They joined their intel- 
lectual labours to the spiritual earnestness which was 
the other weapon for opposing unbelief. Providence 
blessed their work. They sowed the seed of the intel- 
lectual and spiritual harvest which this century is reap- 
ing. " And herein is that saying true, One soweth 
and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon 
ye bestowed no labour : other men laboured, and ye 
are entered into their labours. And he that reapeth 
receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal ; 
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may re- 
joice together." 59 

57 See above, p. 160. The view which Blunt took of the evidences is 
given in his Essays, p. 183, reprinted from the Quarterly Review, April 
1828. 

5S The controversy raised by the Tubingen school refers to the date of 
books of the New Testament which testify to facts and doctrines. Sup- 
posing this primary question settled in favour of our commonly received 
view, then the further question follows concerning the honesty and op- 
portunity of information of the narrators ; and it is here that the arguments 
of Lyttleton, Lardner, and Paley, in the last century, find their proper 
place. See below, Lect. VIII. * 

68 John iv. 37, 38, 36. 



LECTURE VI. 

FREE THOUGHT IN" THE THEOLOGY OF GERMANY FROM 

1750-1835. 



Phil. iv. 8. 
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise, think on these things. 

WE are about to study the history of the movement 
in German theology, which is usually described 
by the vague name of Rationalism, 1 — a movement 
which, whether viewed specially in its relation to the- 
ology, or to literature generally, must be regarded as 
one of the most memorable efforts of human thought. 
It was one aspect of the great outburst of mental ac- 
tivity in Germany, which within the last hundred years 
has created a literature, which not only vies with the 
most renowned of those which have added to the stock 
of human knowledge, but holds a foremost rank among 
those which are characterised by originality and depth. 
The permanent contribution made by it to the thought 
of the world is the creation of a science of criticism, — 
a method of analysis, in which philosophy and history 
are jointly employed in the investigation of every 
branch of knowledge. If however it be viewed apart 
from the question of utility, the works produced during 

1 On Rationalism sec Note 21 at the end of this volume. 



LECTUKE VI. 211 

•this period, in poetry, speculation, criticism, and the- 
ology, must ever make it memorable for monuments of 
mental power, even when they shall have become obso- 
lete as sources of information. 

The theological aspect of this great period of mental 
activity, which we are about to sketch, has now proba- 
bly so far assumed its final shape, and given indications 
of the tendencies permanently created by it for good or 
for evil, that it' admits of being viewed as a whole, and 
its purpose and meaning observed. 2 

We shall deviate slightly from the plan hitherto 
pursued, of selecting only the sceptical form of free 
thought, and shall give an outline of German theology 
generally ; partly because the limits that sever ortho- 
doxy from heresy are a matter of dispute, partly in 
order that the movement may be judged of as a whole. 
The size of the subject will preclude the possibility of 
entering so fully into biographical notices of the 
writers, or into the analysis of their writings, as in 
former lectures. We must select such typical minds 
as will enable us to observe' the chief tendencies of 
thought. 

As the stages of history are not arbitrarily severed, 
but grow out of each other, we must briefly notice the 
mental conditions of the period in Germany which pre- 
ceded the rise of rationalism ; next indicate the new 
forces, the introduction of which was the means of gen- 
erating the movement ; and then explain the move- 
ment itself in its chief phases and present results. 

We have previously had occasion to imply, that the 
Protestant reformation of the sixteenth century con- 
tained both an intellectual and a spiritual element. 3 
The attempt to reconcile these has been the problem 
of protestant theology in Germany ever since. The 
intellectual element, so far as it was literary, soon 

2 The sources for the knowledge of this period are briefly stated in the 
Preface to these lectures. 

3 See p. 9, 99. Hundeshagen (Der Deutsche Prot. § 13) insists on 
the prime importance of the spiritual element as the moving force in the 
Reformation. 



212 LECTURE VI. 

passed into the hands of lay scholars : 4 the spiritual 
became a life rather than a doctrine, and the polemic 
or dogmatic aspect of the intellectual movement alone 
was left. The time from the passing of the Formula of 
Concord and the Synod of Dort 5 to the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, a period nearly corresponding 
with the seventeenth century, was in Germany an age 
of dogmatic theology. It was scholasticism revived, 
with the difference that the only source for the data of' 
argument was the Scripture, not philosophy. But 
there was an equal absence of inquiry into first princi- 
ples, an equal appeal to authority for the grounds of 
belief, and equal activity within these prescribed limits. 
It was marked, as among the contemporary puritans in 
England, by the most extreme view of biblical inspira- 
tion. 6 ]STot only was the distinction of law and gospel 
overlooked, and the historic and providential develop- 
ment in revelation forgotten ; but Scripture was sup- 
posed to be in all respects a guide for the present, as 

4 Molancthon and Camerarius, Calvin and Bcza, represent the union of 
learning with theology; the second Scaliger, the Stephenses, Casaubon, 
and others, are instances of the great lay scholars. 

6 The date of the former is 1577 ; of the latter 1618. These are named 
as the events from which the theology in the Lutheran and Calvinistic 
churches respectively became fixed. Buddeus (Isagoge, p. 239) dates it 
rather from the confession of Ratisbon, 1601. On this dogmatic period 
see Der Deutsche Prot. § 9; H&gcnhac\\'s Dogmengcsch. §216-18 ; Aniand 
Saintes' Critical History of Rationalism (transl.) ch. v. and vi ; Pusey's 
Historical Inquiry, part i. pp. (1-52), part ii. ch. viii. and ix. (1830). It 
was this period which, produced the various books of Loci Communes 
Theologici. The only exception to this scholastic spirit was Calixt. and 
the school of Helmstadt, which in tone was like the school of Saumur, 
(Cameron, Amyrauld, and Flacanis,) or like Baxter, the controversies con- ' 
nected with which prove the rule. On it see Schrockh, Ckristliche 
Kirchcngeschichte scit der Reformation (1804), viii. 243 seq. On the 
theologians of this- period see Weismann, Introd. in Memorabilia Hcclcs. 
Hist. (1718), p. 919 seq. 

G This view of inspiration is stated in Quenstedt's Syst. Theol., and 
Calov's Syst. Theol. i. 554 seq., about the end of the seventeenth century. 
Dr. Pusey (part i. 140) refers to passages of Semler's Lebens-Beschreibung 
illustrative of these opinions in the German church of that period. On the 
similar controversy which existed in the French protestant church see note 
above, p. 1 13. This is only one instance among many of the close analogy 
which exists in the development of thought between the reformed churches 
in different lands. 



LECTURE VI. 213 

well as a record of the past. Infallible inspiration was 
attributed to the authors of the sacred books, not 
merely in reference to the religious instruction which 
formed the appropriate matter of the supernatural 
revelation, but in reference also to the allusions to col- 
lateral subjects, such as natural science, or politics ; 
and not merely to the matter, but to the smallest de- 
tails of the language of the books. 

Contemporary with this scholastic spirit was an 
outburst of the living spiritual feeling which had 
formed the other element in the Reformation. This 
religious movement is denominated Pietism. (27) Its 
centre was at Halle ; and the best known name among 
the band of saints, of whom the world was not worthy, 
was Spener. Soon after the time when the miseries of 
the thirty years' war were closing, he established 
schools for orphans, and a system of teaching and of 
religious living which stirred up religious life in Ger- 
many. These two tendencies — the dogmatic and the 
pietistic — marked the religious life of Germany at the 
opening of the eighteenth century. The inference has 
been frequently drawn by the German writers, that 
they ministered indirectly to the production of scepti- 
cism ; the dogmatic strictness stimulating a reaction 
towards latitude of opinion, and the unchurchlike and 
isolating character of pietism fostering individuality of 
belief. This inference. is however hardly correct. Dog- 
matic truth in the corporate church, and piety in the 
individual members, are ordinarily the safeguard of 
Christian faith and life. The danger arose in this case 
from the circumstance that the dogmas were emptied 
of life, and so became unreal ; and that the piety, being 
separated from theological science,, became insecure. 

During the first half of the century, certain new 
influences were introduced, which in the latter half 
caused these tendencies to develope into rationalism. 
They may be classed as three; 7 — the spread of the 

7 These are the chief influences which the German writers enumerate. 
See Tholuck, ii. § 2-5, Kahnis, History of German Protest, (transl. 1856) 
i. 1. 



214 LECTURE VI. 

speculative philosophy of "Wolff ; the introduction of 
the works of the English deists; and the influence of 
the colony of French infidels established by Frederick 
the Great in Prussia. We shall explain these in detail. 
The philosophy of Wolff was an offshoot directly 
from Leibnitz, indirectly from the Cartesian school. 
It is hardly necessary to reiterate the remark that 
the revolution in thought wrought by Descartes was 
nothing less than a protest of the human mind against 
any external authority for the first principles of its 
belief. Two great philosophers followed out his 
method in an independent manner ; Spinoza, who 
attempted to exhibit with the rigour of deduction the 
necessary development of the idea of substance into 
the various modes which it assumes ; and Leibnitz, 8 
who, with less attempt at formal precision of method, 
starting with the idea of power, endeavoured, by means 
of the monadic theory, which it is unnecessary here to 
explain, to exhibit the nature of the universe in itself, 
and the connexion of the world of matter and of spirit. 
Wolff was a disciple of Leibnitz ; great as a, teacher 
rather than an inventor, who invested the system- of 
his master slightly modified, with the precision of form 
which raised it to rivalry with the perfect symmetry 
of Spinoza's system. Adopting his master's two great 
canons of truth, the law of contradiction as regulative 
of thoughts, and the law of the sufficient reason as 
regulative of things, 9 he attempted in his theoretic 
philosophy to work out a regular system on each of 
the great branches of metaphysic, — nature, the mind, 
and God ; by deducing them from, the abstract ideas 
of the human mind. 10 The true method of conducting 

8 On Leibnitz and his system see Tennemann, Geschichte xi. 93 seq. ; 
Putter's Christliche Phil. viii. 47 seq.; Renouvier, Phil. Mod. (278-90); 
and especially Maine de Biran's Life of Leibnitz in the Biographic Univer- 
scllc. Also Morell's History of Philosophy, i. 220, and H. Rogers's As- 
says (Essay on Leibnitz,) reprinted from the Edinburgh Review, July 1846. 

9 On these canons see Sir W. Hamilton's lectures on Logic, vol. i. lect. 
vi. ; Mansel's Prolegomena, ch. vi. ; and Mills's Logic, vol. ii. b: v. ch. iii. 

§5- 

10 Wolff, 1679-1754. Professor of Philosophy at Halle; in 1723 ex- 
pelled; restored in 1741; Lange and Buddeus were his great opponents 



LECTURE VI. 215 

this inquiry would be strictly an d posteriori one, an 
analytical examination of our own consciousness, to 
ascertain what data the facts of the. thinking mind fur- 
nish with respect to things thought of. But without 
any such examination Wolff, assuming in reference to 
these subjects the abstract ideas of the human mind as 
his data, proceeded to reason from them with the same 
confidence as the realists of the middle ages, or as 
mathematicians when they commence with the real 
intuitions of magnitude on which their science is found- 
ed. Thus his whole philosophy was form without 
matter ; a magnificent idea, but not a fact. Yet 
though really baseless, it was not necessarily harmful. 

This philosophy at first met with much opposition 
from the pietistic party of Halle. 11 The opposition was 
not due to any theological incorrectness, for Wolff was 
an orthodox Christian ; bnt arose from the narrow and 
unnecessary suspicions which religious men too often 
have of philosophy, and the sensibility to any "attempt 
to suggest a reconsideration of the grounds of belief, 
even if the conclusion adopted be the same. But the 
system soon became universally dominant. Its orderly 
method possessed the fascination which belongs to any 
encyclopaedic view of human knowledge. It coincided 
too with the tone of the age. Really opposed, as Car- 
tesianism had been in France, to the scholasticism 
which still reigned, its dogmatic form nevertheless 
bore such external similarity to it, that it fell in with 

(see Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. § 274). His philosophy consisted of an 
attempt to deduce a priori a system of (1) cosmology, (2) psychology, (3) 
natural theology. The latter relates to God, His attributes in Himself and 
in creation. See some remarks by Mr. Mansel on his scheme (art. Meta- 
phj/sic. Encycl. Brit, 8vo. ed. p. 603). ' On his philosophy see Ritter, 
Christ. Phil. viii. b. x. ch. i. ; Tennemann's Manual, % (363-5) ; Morell, i. 
228; Rosenkrantz, Gesch. der Kantischen Schule, b. i. part iii. ch. i. His 
religious opinions are found in the Theol. Nat. 1736, and Philos. Moralis, 
1*750, and in his Vernuenftige Gedanken von Gott. 174V (p. 604). See on 
them Henke, Kirchengesch. viii. § 3 ; Mansel's Bampton Lectures, note 3. 
And on the effects of his philosophy, and the state of theology in Germany 
at the time of its influence, see Tholuck's Vermischte Schriften, ii. § 2 
and 1. 

11 In 1723, in consequence of the petition from the pietist professors, 
Frederick I. deposed Wolff. See Kahnis (Engl. Transl.) p. 114. 



216 LECTURE VI. 

the old literary tastes. The evil effects which it subse- 
quently produced in reference to religion were due 
only to the point of view which it ultimately induced. 
Like Locke's work on the reasonableness of Christian- 
ity, it stimulated intellectual speculation concerning 
revelation. By suggesting attempts to deduce d priori 
the necessary character of religious truths, it turned 
men's attention more than ever away from spiritual 
religion to theology. The attempt to demonstrate 
everything caused dogmas to be viewed apart from 
their practical aspect ; and men being compelled to 
discard the previous method of drawing philosophy out 
of scripture, an independent philosophy was created, 
and scripture compared with its discoveries. 12 Philos- 
ophy no longer relied on scripture, but scripture rested 
on philosophy. Dogmatic theology was made a part 
of metaphysical philosophy. This was the mode in 
which Wolff's philosophy ministered indirectly to the 
creation of the disposition to make scriptural dogmas 
submit to reason, which was denominated rationalism. 
The empire of it was undisputed during the whole of 
the middle part of the century, until it was expelled 
towards the close by the partial introduction of Locke's 
philosophy, 13 and of the system of Kant, as well as by 
the growth of classical erudition, and of a native litera- 
ture. 

The second cause which ministered to generate 
rationalism was English deism. The connexion of Eng- 
land with Hanover had caused several of the works of 
the English deists to be translated in Germany, 14 and the 

12 In reference to the introduction of Wolff's philosophy, the reference 
to Tholuck has been already given. See also Schroch's Gesch. viii. 26; 
Lechler, 448; Amand Saintes' Critical History of Rationalism, i. ch. ix. ; 
Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. § 274; Kahnis, p. 110. Kahnis (115) names 
Baumgarten, Canz, and Toellner, as Wolff's pupils. Mosheim and the 
Walches were too exclusively literary to be affected by the new philosophy. 
Canz of Tubingen was the first to apply the system to doctrinal theology 
(1728). See Pusey, parti. 116. 

13 Locke's philosophy in a distorted form was introduced by the French 
philosophers who lived at the court of Frederick II. 

14 On the introduction of English deism, see Tholuck, § 3. A few only 
of the deist writings were translated, (e. g. Tindalby Schmidt in 1741,) but 



LECTURE VI. 217 

general doctrines of natural religion, expressed by Her- 
bert and Toland, were soon reproduced, together with 
the difficulties put forth by Tindal. But the direct 
effect of this cause has probably been exaggerated by 
the eagerness of those who, in the wish to identify Ger- 
man rationalism with English deism, have ignorantly 
overlooked the wide differences in premises, if not in 
results, which separated them, and the regular internal 
law of logical development which has presided over the 
German movement. 

A more direct cause was found about the middle of 
the century in the influence of the French refugees and 
others, whom Frederick the Great invited to his court. 
Not only were Voltaire and Diderot visitors, but sev- 
eral writers of worse fame, La Mettrie, D'Argens, Mau- 
pertuis, 15 who possessed their faults without their men- 
tal power, were constant residents. Their philosophy 
and unbelief were the miniature of that which we have 
detailed in France. They created an antichristian at- 
mosphere about the court, and in the upper classes of 
Berlin ; and even minds that were attempting to create 
a native literature, and to improve the critical standard 
of literary taste, were partially influenced by means 
of it. 16 

"We have now seen the state of the German mind in 
reference to theology at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, and the three new influences which were intro- 
duced into it in the interval between 1720 and 1760. 
The dogmatic tendency became transformed by the 
Wolffian philosophy ; the pietistic retired from a public 
movement into the privacy of life ; while the minds of 

very many of the replies ; which proves how much attention they excited. 
See the list in Lechler, p. 447. Up to 1760 no fewer than 106 answers 
had been written to Tindal alone. Kortholt, in his work De Tribus Im- 
postoribus, (viz. Herbert, Hobbes, Spinoza,) 1680, was the first to notice 
English deism. The appeal to reason in these replies had the same effect 
as that noticed in the philosophy of Wolff. 

1& For Maupertuis see Biographie Universelle. The others have been 
named in the notes to Lect. V. 

J6 See Tholuck, § 4 and 5. He considers that the French literature, 
with the exception of Bayle, did not affect the Germans, on account of its 
shallowness ; but doubtless it did so indirectly. 

10 



218 LECTURE VI. 

men were awakened to inquiry by the suggestions of 
the English deists, or the restless and hopeful tone of 
the French mind. It was a moment of transition ; the 
streaks of twilight before the dawn. Yet the signs of a 
change were so slight, that few could as yet discern the 
coming of a crisis, none predict its form. 

"We may now proceed to give the history of the 
theological movement which sprang up, commonly 
called Rationalism. It admits of natural division into 
three parts. The first, a period destructive in its tend- 
ency, extending to a little later than the end of the 
century, exhibits the gradual growth of the system, and 
its spread over every department of theology. The 
second, reconstructive in character, the re-establishment 
of harmony between faith and reason, extends till the 
publication of Strauss's celebrated work on the Life of 
Christ in 1835 ; the third, containing ihe divergent 
tendencies which have created permanent schools, 
reaches to the present time. 17 In all alike the harmony 
of faith and reason was sought : but in the first it was 
attained by sacrificing faith to reason ; in the second 
and third, by seeking for their unity, or by separating 
their spheres. A distinguished name stands at the 
commencement of each period, representing the mind 
whose speculations were most influential in giving form 
to the movements. Sender inaugurated the destruc- 
tive movement ; Schleiermacher, the constructive ; and 
Strauss precipitated the final forms which theological 
parties have assumed. In the present lecture we shall 
treat only of the first two of these movements. 

The first of these periods, extending from about 
1750 to 1810, 18 contains two sub-periods. Till about 
1T90 19 we find the growth of rationalism. In the last 
decade of the century we shall meet with its full devel- 

J7 This division does not essentially differ from the threefold one 
adopted by Kahnis, into the illumination period, that of the renovation, 
and of the church renovating itself. 

18 We place the limit at 1810, because it is the date of the foundation 
of the university of Berlin, which was the home of the reaction. 

19 This date marks the spread of the Kantian philosophy, as will be 
ghc>wn below. 



LECTURE VI. 219 

opment ; but at the same time the growth of new 
causes will be perceived, which prepared the way for a 
total alteration after the commencement of the present 
century. 

The sub-period extending to 1790 is one of transi- 
tion, in which we can trace three broadly marked ten- 
dencies in religion ; one within the church, two outside 
of it. Such classes indeed slide away into each other ; 
nature is more complex than man ; but the use of them 
may be excused as facilitating instruction. 

The movement within the church verged from a 
literary and dogmatic orthodoxy, which existed chiefly 
at the Saxon university of Leipsic, through the purely 
literary tendency, of which Michaelis may be taken as 
a type in the newly formed university* of Gottingen, to 
the freethinking method typified by Semler, orthodox 
in doctrine, but in criticism adopting free views of in- 
spiration, which mingled itself with the old pietism of 
the university of Halle. 20 

The two movements outside the church were, a lite- 
rary one, indicated by Lessing, which found its chief 
utterance in the periodical literature, then in its in- 
fancy; 21 and a thoroughly deist one, connected with 
the court of Berlin, embodied in the educational institu- 
tions of Basedow. 22 

The movement which we have just named as exist- 
ing within the church, differed from the older dogmatic 
one, in being a tendency toward an historical and criti- 
cal-study of the scriptures, instead of a philosophical 
study of doctrines. It embraced those whose teaching 
was not at variance with Christianity, and also those 

20 There was thus three chief phases within the church ; the dogmatic 
at Leipsic, the critical at Gbttingen, the pietistic eclecticism of Semler at 
Halle. If to this we add the pietism which still reigned at Tiibing< n, as 
seen in Pfaff, &c, we have the condition of the four universities wh.ch. 
were at that time the chief centres of intellectual activity in Germany. 

21 Lessing, along with Nicholai, conducted the Allgemeine JDcutsche 
Biblioihek from 1765. 

22 On the purpose and nature of these institutions, which arose at 
Dessau about 1774, see Schlosser, i. 5, 3 ; ii. 3, 2; Kahnis, p. 47. On 
Basedow (1724-1790), see Rose on Rationalism, p. 66, note (second edi* 
tion), and Schrbch, viii. 52. 



220 LECTUEE VI. 

who manifested incipient scepticism. Two names, 
Ernesti 23 at Leipsic, and Michaelis 24 at Gottingeu, 
represent the first class ; the former applying criticism 
chiefly to the New Testament, the latter to the Old. 
The endeavonr of both, especially of Ernesti, was to 
revive the grammatical and literary mode of interpret- 
ing scripture, as opposed to the dogmatic previously 
in use. Their spirit was not sceptical, but was that of 
men who felt the sceptical opinions round them ; 
ethical and cold, like that of the Arminians of the 
preceding century. 

Their system developed into rationalism in the 
hands of two of their pupils. Eichhorn was the pupil 
of Michaelis, Semler of Ernesti. The name of Eich- 
horn will recur later ; Semler 25 must be considered 
now. 

Semler was one of those minds which fall short of 
the highest order of originality, but by their erudition 
and appreciation of the wants of their time institute 
a movement by giving form to the current feeling of 

23 J. A. Ernesti (1707-1 781), was author of Inst. Interpret. Nov. Test. 
1761 (translated by bishop Terrot). His chief labours were the editions of 
several classical authors, among which the most valuable was Cicero. See 
Scblosser, ii. 187; Kahnis, 120; Pusey, 132; Am. Saintes, part ii. ch. ii. 
The Rosenmiillers (the father, J. G. Roscnmiiller, on the New Testament; 
the son, E. F. Roscnmiiller the antiquarian on the Old,) manifest much the 
same spirit as Ernesti. 

24 Joh. Dav. Michaelis (1716-1791). His chief works were, Gmend- 
liche Erklaerung ties Mosaischen Rechts, and the Einleitung in die Schrift, 
dcs Neuen Buncles. The former handled the Hebrew legislation in a free 
spirit. The latter work was translated by bishop Marsh, and led to the 
controversy about the composition of the Gospels, to which allusion will 
be made in the notes of Lecture VII. See Kahnis, p. 121 ; Henke, viii. 
part ii. § 2. Jerusalem and Spalding manifest the same spirit as Michaelis. 

25 Semler (1725-1791), Professor at Halle. His Lebens-beschreibung, 
published 1781,. is the great source for studying his mental development 
and the history of his times. His works are numerous, consisting chiefly 
of Commentaries and Ecclesiastical History. He was one of the first to 
open up the study of the history of doctrine {dogmengeschichte). The 
works which exhibit his rationalism are chiefly the Frei Untersuchcn dcs 
Canons, 1771 ; Versuch cincr freiern lehrart, 1777; Introduction to Ban m- 
garten's Dogmatik ; Institutiones ad Doctrinam Christianam liberalitcr 
docendam, 17Y4. His character is discussed at length in Tholuck, § 6 ; 
Pusey, 138, &c. ; Schlosser, ii. 187; Am. Saintes, b. ii. ch. ii. and iii. On 
the successors of the writers recently named, see Am. Saintes, b. ii. ch. iv. 



LECTURE VI. 221 

tlieir da j. Nurtured in pietism, lie always retained 
signs of personal excellence ; and his Christian ear- 
nestness is said not to have been destroyed by his spec- 
ulations. His autobiography furnishes us with the 
means for the full comprehension of his character, and 
shows him to have been keenly alive to the difficulties 
which the English literature had suggested. His la- 
bours related to criticism, to exegesis, and to doctrine. 
As a critic he did not restrict himself to the exami- 
nation of texts, but investigated the canonicity of the 
books of Scripture. 26 It is probable that the criticism 
commenced by R. Simon and Spinoza furnished hints 
for his view^s. He was one of the first to undervalue ex- 
ternal evidence in the formation of the canon. The de- 
termination of the canon, i. e. of the list of books which 
are to be considered scripture, is a question of fact. 
What did the early church pronounce to be such ; and 
does internal evidence bear out the idea ? Sender 
undervalued the historical evidence of the church's 
judgment, and replaced it, not by careful study of in- 
ternal critical evidence, like later rationalism, but by 
an a. priori subjective decision, that only such books 
were to be received as conduced to a religious object. 
But it is in exegesis that he enunciated the principles 
which have left a permanent effect. He established 
w T hat is called the historical method of interpretation. 27 
In the course of Christian history, three great 
methods for the interpretation of scripture have been 
used ; the allegorical, the dogmatic, and the grammat- 
ical. 28 In the early church the tendency in the main 

26 In the work on the Canon named in the last note. 

27 See the historic sketch of interpretation given in Planck's Introduction 
to Sacred Philology, (English translation, 168-186). Interesting informa- 
tion is supplied in Credner's article Interpretation in Kitto's Biblical Encyclo- 
pedia; J. J. Conybeare's Bampton Lecture for 1824 on the Secondary In- 
terpretation of Scripture ; Dr. S. Davidson's Sacred Hermeneutics (5-*7); 
and an article in the North British Review for August 1S55 on the Alexan- 
drian school. 

2S These tendencies must be considered only to express the average. 
Thus the school of Antioch, of which Theodore of Mopsuestia is a type, 
leaned to the grammatical mode; (see some remarks on it in Neander's 
Church History, vol. iv. init. Germ. ed. ; vol. in. fin. Engl. Tr.) In the 



222 LECTURE VI. 



was to the allegorical ; in the middle ages to the dog- 
matic ; at the Benaissance and lit formation to the 
grammatical, which however in the seventeenth cen- 
tury was displaced by the allegorical 29 and dogmatic ; 
and it was the work of Ernesti to restore it. Semler ad- 
ded the historic ; by which is meant the method, which, 
after discovering the grammatical sense of the words, 
rests content exactly with the meaning which the cir- 
cumstances of society could permit scripture to have at 
that age. It declines to search for mystical senses, or to 
use dogma as a clue to interpretation. This principle, 
so valuable in itself, yet, when abused, so fruitful in pro- 
ducing rationalism, was the discovery of Semler. 

The application of this method of interpretation led 
him to the theory generally known by the name of 
" accommodation. " 30 He felt a strong reaction against 
the forgetfulness shown by the old dogmatic orthodoxy, 
which had regarded the Bible as one book, instead of a 
collection or historic series of books, and had confound- 
ed together the Jewish and Christian dispensations, 
and taken no cognizance of the development of religious 
knowledge in scripture. Accordingly he desired to 
remove the deist difficulty by separating the eternal 
truth in scripture from what he considered to be local 
and temporary. Our Lord's own declaration, 31 that the 
Mosaic law of divorce was an adaptation to the par- 
middle ages the Franciscans showed an inclination to the mystical or al- 
legorical ; and the typical system of the Miracle Plays and of the Biblia 
Pauperum illustrates the allegorical spirit of those times. 

29 The allegorical is seen in the school of Cocceius (1603-1669) in the 
Dutch church. The dogmatic has been alluded to above. 

30 The system is called variously, in works of Hermeneutics, <rvyKard- 
fiacris, condescensio, demissio, obsequium. It is developed in Sender's 
Prolegomena to some of St. Paul's Epistles ; in the Vorbereitung zur 
Theol. Hermcncntik, 1762 ; and in the Apparatus ad lib. Nov. Test, interpr. 
1767. Tholuck quotes many instances of it in reference to him (ii. 61). 
Concerning the subject see Planck's Introduction to Sacred Philology, (E. 
T.) 152-168; Wegscheider, Inst. Tlwol. § 25; Bretschneider, Hist.-Dogm. 
Anshgung des N. T. 1806. A list of foreign works in reference to it is 
given at the end of the article Accommodation, in Kitto's Biblical Enc ycU >- 
pecdia. For a criticism on it see J. J. Conybcarc's Bampton Lecture for 
1S24. (Lect. VII.) 

31 Mark x. 5. 



LECTURE VI. 223 

ticular needs of the age, seemed to estabnsn the validi- 
ty of the principle that revelation was an accommo- 
dation to be judged of by the historic circumstances of 
the age for which it was intended. The principle had 
been applied by English theologians: 32 but it needed a 
delicate insight to apply it safely. Sender introduced 
it indiscriminately into prophecy, miracle, and doctrine ; 
and stated his views in a form which, though well meant, 
is certainly most repulsive. We may cite an instance 
in the case of his view of the demoniacal possessions of 
the New Testament. 33 Not denying them, Sender prob- 
ably considered them to be nothing but the diseases of 
epilepsy and madness. But he did not ridicule the 
narrative as a deist would, nor explain the facts away 
as legends or myths, as is the plan of the later schools, 
nor account for them by the supposition that the apos- 
tles were left in ignorance about physical science, and 
inspired only in religious knowledge ; but he regarded 
the narrative as an intentional accommodation on the 
part of the teachers to their hearers, and consequently 
stated his views in a form which is the more repulsive 
as seeming to impute dishonesty. 34 He went so far as 
to consider some of the doctrines of the New Testa- 
ment to be an accommodation on the part of our Lord 
to the Jewish notions; and regarded Christ's work as 
the compromise between the Mosaic and philosophical 
parties in the Jewish church, which afterwards were 
represented in the Christian by St. Peter and St. Paul 
respectively. 35 Though he himself held the apostles' 
creed, and was shocked at some later developments of 

32 E. g. By Kidder in his Testimony of the Ifessias, 1694; Nicholls, 
Conference with a Theist, 1733; and bySykes, in several works from about 
1720-40. 

33 Dr. Pusey speaks {Inquiry, p. 139, n.) of two works by Semler on 
Demons, (of which I have seen only the second, 1779,) the first directed 
against the belief in the occurrence of possessions in the present day ; the 
second to show that some of the Greek words descriptive of such pheno- 
mena in the New Testament need not necessarily imply superhuman 
agency. 

34 Because it seemed to involve the notion of dissimulation on the part 
of the scripture writers, or even of the divine Being. 

25 Introd. ad Doctr. Ghristianam, b. i. See Am. Saintes, p. 107. 



224 LECTURE VI. 

unbelief, 36 yet lie seems to have considered practical 
morality to be at once the sole aim of Christianity, and 
the supreme rule of doctrine. 37 He founded no school ; 
but his influence decidedly initiated the rationalist 
movement within the church ; one peculiarity of which 
will be found to be, that it was professedly designed in 
defence of the church, not as an attack upon it. 

The tendency which we have just studied was with- 
in the church. The two now about to be named were 
external to it. The one, earnest and scholarlike, 
formed chiefly on the model of English deism, is repre- 
sented by Lessing. The other, modelled after Rous- 
seau, was practical rather than intellectual, and aimed 
at remodelling education as well as altering belief. 

Lessing, 38 a name honoured in the history of litera- 
ture, is little known in England, save by his exquisite 
comparison of ait and poetry, called the Laocoon. 39 
He was one of those whose labours remain for the 
benefit of other ages, like that of the coral worms, 
which die, but leave their work. That a native Ger- 
man literature exists, is the work of Lessing as pioneer ; 
that it is worth studying, is the result of his criticism 
and influence. Finding literature just arising, and the 
dispute still raging between the Saxon and Swiss 
schools, whether it should model itself after reason and 
form like the French literature, or after nature and the 
soul like the English, (28) he showed the true mode of 
uniting the two by turning attention to Greek models ; 

30 E. g. The Wolfenbuttcl Fragments. See Am. Saintes, p. 86, and 
Niemeyer's Letzte Aeusserungen ueber religioese Gegenstaende ztvei Tage 
vor seinem Tode, which he quotes. 

37 His doctrinal views are seen in the Lebens-beschreibung, part ii. p. 
220, &c. 

38 Lessing (1729-1781). In 1754 he joined Nicholai and Mendelssohn 
in literary criticism ; in 1757, in the Bibliotlick der Schunen Wissenscltaf- 
ten ; and in 1765, in the Allgem. Deutsche Biblioth. An account of his 
life and literary character may be seen in the Foreign Quarterly ficvicio 
(No. 50) for 1840, and an able criticism on him by C.'Dollfus in the Revue 
Germanique for 1560 (vol. ix.). Consult also Menzel's Dcutsclu Litt. iii. 
291, &c. ; Metcalfe's work based on Vilmar, p. 400 seq. A separate study 
of his theological opinions was made by 0. Schwartz in 1854, entitled 
Leasing ah 27/colog^ especially c. iv. ; see also Bartholmess, b. ii. eh. ii 

39 Published in 1766. 



LECTURE VI. 225 

and, in conjunction with Nicholai and the Jewish phi- 
losopher Mendelssohn, established a critical periodical, 
which became the agency for a literary reformation. 
But the point of interest, in relation to our present sub- 
ject, is his influence on religion. Availing himself of 
the right which his position as librarian of Wolfenbiit- 
tel, a small town near Brunswick, gave him to publish 
manuscripts found in the library, he edited, in 1774: 
and the four following years, several fragments of a 
larger work, which he professed to have found. They 
are usually called the Wolfenbiittel fragments. (29) 
Till recently their authorship remained a secret. They 
are now known to have been written by the learned 
Hamburg philosopher, Keimarus. 40 They treated very 
nearly the same subjects, and in much the same tone, 
but with consummate skill, as the English deists. Eei- 
marus, as is now known, in the introduction 41 to the 
larger unprinted work from which they were extracted, 
gave his own intellectual history, his early doubts on 
the doctrines of the Trinity, and the destruction of the 
heathen ; and also on the history of the Old and Kew 
Testaments ; and ends, like the English deists, with 
resting in natural religion. 

The first two 42 fragments, published by Lessing, 
touched only upon the question of tolerating deists, and 
on the custom of declaiming against human reason in 
the pulpits. The third referred to the impossibility 
that all men should be brought to believe revelation on 
rational evidence. The fourth and fifth attacked the 
Old Testament history, such as the passage of the Red 
Sea. The sixth directed an assault against the New 
Testament ; pointing out with unsparing severity the 
discrepancies in the accounts of the resurrection. The 
concluding one was on the object of Christianity, in 

40 H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768). See Sclilosser, ii. 26, &c, and- the 
article lieimariis in the Conversations- Lexicon. 

41 See Note 29 at the end of this volume.. 

42 The Fragments are here named according to the order of their ori- 
ginal publication ; not that in which they are usually printed, as, e. g. in 
the Berlin edition, 1835. 

10* 



226 LECTURE VI. 

which our blessed Lord's life and work were represented 
as a defeated political reform.- 

These views however were not professedly sanc- 
tioned by Leasing, for he added notes in refutation of 
them, and stated his object to be merely to stimulate 
free inquiry. 43 His wish was gratified in the tremen- 
dous effect which the publication produced. In the 
literary controversy which ensued, and which embit- 
tered his few remaining days, 44 he explained himself to 
be a doubter rather than a disbeliever ; and defended 
himself by urging the distinctness of the religious ele- 
ment in scripture from the scientific ; asserting that, as 
Christianity existed before the New Testament, so it 
could exist after it. The Christian religion is not 
true, he said, merely because evangelists and apostles 
taught it ; but they taught it because it is true. And 
in order to restore Christianity to its true place in the 
estimation of thinking men, he composed or edited a 
well-known work 45 on the Education of the World, 46 
which became a fertile source of thought for the phi- 
losophy of history, and was designed to explain the func- 
tion of the Jewish religion in reference to the Christian, 
and to the world. The theology of Lessfng's coadjutors 
however, if not also that of Lessing himself, did not rise 
higher than that of the more serious among the English 
deists. 47 

The other tendency, more decidedly sceptical even 
than that of Lessing, gave definite form to the extreme 



43 Compare Strauss's description of them in his Lcbcn Jesu, Introd. § 5. 
Lessfng's own object in their publication is expressed in the concluding 
pages of his edition of them. 

44 The chief opposition arose from Goze, a pastor of Hamburg, who 
attacked Lessing even before the last and most obnoxious fragment w;is 
published ; but both Sender and Jerusalem also wrote against him. See 
Boden's Lessing und GQzc, Ein Beitrag zur Lit. und Kirchengesch. des 18 
Jakrh. 1862 ; also the references given at the end of Note 29 (p. 42*7); es- 
pecially Hagcnbach's Dogmengesch. § 275, note. 

45 See the note on p. 87. 

48 Die Erziehung des mcnscJrfichcn Gcschlcchts, lately partially trans- 
lated into English. It conveyed the thoughts suggested by the perusal of 
some apologies for religion. 

47 The theologians Steinbart and Teller represented a similar spirit. 



LECTUEE VI. 227 

sceptical opinions excited by French, philosophy, which 
had been fermenting in German society, and had earlier 
expressed themselves. It is best represented by Edel- 
niann, 48 and by the unhappy Bahrdt, who passed gradu- 
ally from Sender's school into this. Its religions te- 
nets were simple naturalism, moral as distinct from 
positive religion; and it was connected vith the 
attempt by Basedow, 49 patronised by Frederick, to 
establish educational institutions on the model pro- 
posed in Rousseau's Emile. The name which it gave 
to the movement was, the Period of Enlightenment 
(Aufldarung-zeit), 50 which expressed the consciousness 
of illumination, and the yearning for deliverance which 
was finding its expression in France ; and this name 
therefore has been usually adopted among foreign 
writers to describe this period of the history. 

Such are the historical tendencies from about 1750 
till about 1790 — cold but learned orthodoxy ; the com- 
mencement of critical rationalism, and open deism. 
About that time new influences came into operation, 
the effects of which are at once evident. Without tak- 
ing account of the excitement caused by the political 
events of the French revolution, we may name two such 
new causes of movement — the literary influence of the 
court of Weimar, and the philosophy of Kant. 

The centres of intellectual activity in Germany now 
changed. We are so apt to forget that Germany, espe- 
cially at the end of the last century, formed a set of 



48 On Edelmann, who died 176*7, see Kahnis, p. 126; and on Bahrdt 
(1741-92), Id. pp. 136-145 ; and Schlosser, ii: 211. The life of Bahrdt is 
a sad subject for study. Kahnis (p. 125 seq.) enumerates other deists, some 
of them earlier than those whom we are new considering, e. g. Knuzen, 
Dippel (1673-1734). 

49 See the reference above, p. 219. 

50 The contrast of the English, French, and German periods of illumin- 
ism is well drawn out by Kuno Fischer {Bacon, ch. zi. 2, 3, and xiii. 3). 
I have been unable to discover positively whether the term in its first use 
meant mei-ely Renaissance (cfr. the Italian term illuminati), or whether ifc 
meant the philosophy which makes its appeal to common sense, being 
connected with the Cartesian principle, wahr ist, teas Mar ist. The former 
appears almost certain ; but some of the German writers seem to favour 
the latter. On its nature, see Kahnis, p. 61-63. 



228 LECTURE VI. 

independent principalities, which varied in taste, in 
belief, and in literary tone, that we fail to realise the 
individuality of the scenes of literary activity. At the 
end of. the last century there was one spot which be- 
came the very focus of intellectual life. The court of 
Karl August at Weimar, insignificant in political im- 
portance, was great in the history of the human mind/ 11 
There were gathered there most of the mighty spirits 
of the golden age of German literature, — Herder, Wie- 
land, Goethe, Schiller, Jean Paul ; a constellation of 
intellect unequalled since the court of Ferrara in the 
days of Alphonso. 52 The influence made itself felt in 
the adjacent university of Jena ; and this little semi- 
nary became from that time for about twenty years, 63 
until the foundation of Berlin, the first university in 
Germany. In it alone the philosophy of Kant became 
naturalized. 64 Some of the ablest men in Germany 
were its Professors ; and about this time Jena and Wei 7 
mar became the stronghold of free thought. 

Except in the case of Herder, 66 the literary influence 
was not directly influential on theology. But it gave 
moral support to theological movement ; though ulti- 
mately, by introducing a truer and more subjective 
appreciation of human nature, it was the means of gcn- 

51 A very interesting article on Weimar and its celebrities appeared in 
the Westminster Review for April 1859. The illustration about the court of 
Ferrara, just below, is taken from it, Mr. G. II. Lewes, in his Life of 
Goethe, gives incidentally sketches of the intellectual and moial influence 
of the court of Weimar. 

5 " 2 Alfonso d'Este reigned from 1505-34. He was the husband of 
Lucrezia Borgia. 

53 i. e. from about 1790 to 1810. 

54 Kant's great work, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, appeared in 1*781, 
but was not known out of Kbnigsberg until one of his disciples, Schulze 
in 1*784, elucidated it in a separate work. The Jcnaische Literatur^Zeitung 
also favoured it. In 1*786 Reinhold became Professor at Jena, and began 
to teach Kant's system. See Schlosser, vol. ii. p. 182-4. 

55 Herder did not adopt the new philosophy of Kant. His theological 
writings were rather earlier than 1*790. They created a love for the 
literature of young nations, and for the Hebrew religion, in a literary 
rather than a spiritual point of view. On Herder's religious influence, see 
Schlosser, ii. 2*78, &c. ; and the article by Hagenbach in Herzog's Real. 
Ency'clop. ; also Hagenbach's Gesch. des 18 Jahrh. § 4 and 5 ; and Quinet's 
Oiuvres, vol. ii. 



LECTURE VI. 229 

erating the deep insight in the critical taste of think- 
ing men which furnished the death-blow to rationalism. 
The same remark is true of the effects of the philosophy 
of Kant. 56 Its ultimate result was valuable in remov- 
ing the eudaemonism common in ethics, and turning 
men's attention to the moral law within. But its im- 
mediate, effects were to reinforce the appeal to reason, 
and to destroy revelation by leaving nothing to be 
revealed. 

The nature of this system, so far as is necessary for 
our purpose, may be soon told. Kant, dissatisfied with 
the distrust in the human faculties induced by the scep- 
ticism of Hume, and the one-sided sensationalism of 
Condillac, carried a penetrating analysis into the human 
faculties ; " attempting to perform with more exactness 
the work of Locke, to measure the human mind, which 
is the sounding-line, before fathoming the ocean of 
knowledge. Like Copernicus inverting astronomy, he 
reversed metaphysics, by referring classes of ideas to 
inward causes which before had been referred to outer. 

He detected, as he supposed, innate forms of 
thought 58 in the mental structure, which form the 
conditions under which knowledge is possible. When 
he applied his system to give a philosophy of ethics 
and religion, he asserted nobly the law of duty written 



6C Kant lived 1724-1804. On his philosophy see Chalybaus, Hist, of 
Speculatiue Philosophy (translated 1854); Am. Saintes' Philos. de Kant, 
1844; Cousin, Lemons de la Phil, de Kant, 1843. A good account of it 
also is given in Morelfs Hist, of Philosophy, i. 233-63, in R. Vaughan's 
(sen.) Essays, and in a Lecture by Professor Mansel on the Philosophy of 
Kant, 1860. See also the references in Tennemann's Manual, § 387-94. 
In reference to its theological effects, see Am. Saintes' Critical History of 
Rationalism, ii. 5 and 6 ; Bartholmess, b. v. and vi. The parts of Kant's 
writings which are of special importance for ascertaining his theological 
views are, his work Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Ver- 
nunft, 1793, and his criticism on natural theology in the Kritik der reinen 
Vernunft, b. ii. div. 3. See Strauss, Leben Jesu, introd. § 7. Staiidlin, 
jimmon, and Tieftrunk, were Kantist theologians. 

57 -In the Kritik der reinen Vernunft above named, which was so 
.called because he strove to analyse the pure reason, before it is defiled by 
contact with the world through experience. 

5a Tbe categories, the test of the existence of which is necessity and 
universality. 



230 



LECTURE VI. 



in the heart, 50 but identified it with religion. Religious 
ideas were regarded as true regulatively, not specula- 
tively. Revelation was reunited with reason, by being 
resolved into the natural religion of the heart. Ac- 
cordingly, the moral effect of this philosophy was to 
expel, the French materialism and illuminism, 60 and to 
give depth to the moral perceptions : its religious effect 
was to strengthen the appeal to reason and the moral 
judgment as the test of religious truth ; to render 
miraculous communication of moral instruction useless, 
if not absurd ; and to reawaken the attempt, which 
had been laid aside since the Wolffian philosophy, of 
endeavouring to find a philosophy of religion. 01 From 
this time in German theology we shall find the exist- 
ence of the twofold movement ; the critical one, the 
lawful descendant of Semler, examining the historic 
revelation ; and the philosophical one, the offshoot of 
the system of Kant, seeking for a philosophy of religion. 

During the next twenty years, from 1790 to 1810, 
when so many influences were operating in common, it 
is not easy to measure the effect of the speculative 
philosophy upon particular minds with such exactness 
as to ascertain which ought properly to be classed in 
the destructive tendency, and which gave signs of the re- 
action. We must however be careful to exclude those 
younger minds 02 that were already appearing on the 
field, to become the heroes of the subsequent history, 
whose tone was so decidedly affected by new influences 
as to belong to the age of reaction. 

In this sub-period we may name three tendencies : 
(1) the continuation of the Exegesis inaugurated in the 
last epoch by Semler, until about the end of the century 
it found its utmost limit in Paulus, 03 — the result of the 

69 This appears in his KritiTc der practischen Vr.rnunft. 

0,0 Illuminism is used as the translation of Aufklacrungs-Zcit. 

61 The difference between Wolff and Kant is, that while the former 
sought a philosophy of religion ontologically, the latter sought it psycholo- 
gically, by first ascertaining the functions of the mind in reference to 
religion. • 62 Such as Schlciermacher. 

63 Paulus, 1761-1851 ; Professor at Jena, and from 1811 at Heidelberg. 
Some of his works are named below. 



LECTURE VI. 231 

age of illumination ; (2) a dogmatic tendency, more or 
less the growth of new influences introduced by the 
new philosophy, which attempted to reconcile reason 
with the supernatural, and may be represented in its 
nearest approach to orthodoxy, at the end of this 
period, by Bretsclmeider ; 04 and (3) the awakening of a 
distinct expression of the appeal to the supernatural 
which had never quite died out in the church, in the 
Arminianism of Reinhardt in the north, and of Storr in 
the south. 65 The last needs no further investigation ; 
but we shall consider briefly the other two. 

The exegetical method which formed the first was 
that which is now usually called the old or common- 
sense rationalism. 66 This form of rationalism differed 
from the English deism and French naturalism, in not 
regarding the Bible as fabulous in character, and the 
device of priestcraft ; 6? but only denied the super- 
natural. By them the apostles had been regarded as 
impostors ; and scripture was not only not received as 
divine, but not even respected as an ordinary historical 
record ; whereas rationalism was intended as a defence 
against this view. It denied only the revealed charac- 
ter of scripture, and treated it as an ordinary history ; 
and, distinguishing broadly between the fact related 

64 K. G. Bretschneider, 1776-1S48 ; General Superintendent at Gotha. 
A abort autobiography was published after his death, which is translated in 
the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1852-3. His best work is the Handbuch dcr 
Dor/matik, 1814, 1838. He was the writer of the Probab'dia concerning 
St. John's Gospel, named in Lect. VII. 

65 F. Reinhardt (1753-1812) of Saxony. His supernaturalism was 
perhaps rather ethical than biblical. (See Kahnis, 187, Am. Saintes, 
c. viii.) Storr (174G-1805) was Professor at Tubingen. The belief in the 
supernatural had never died out. A philosophical supernaturalism was 
seen in Flatt, Planck, Schroeh and a truly biblical kind in Knapp. Along 
with Reinhardt ought perhaps to be reckoned Morus and Doderlein ; at a 
little earlier period Seller, and a little later Steudel : on this school see Am. 
Saintes, ch. iv. 

e6 i.e. RationalismusVulgaris. On Rationalism, see Note 21 (p. 413.) On 
this particular kind see Kahnis, p. 169. It is distinguished from naturalism 
chiefly by being connected with the church, and by the opinion that it is 
the very essence of Christianity. It was represented by Paulus in criticism, 
Wegscheider in dogma, and Rohr in preaching. 

01 As Woolston, Bolingbroke, and Voltaire. Cfr. Strauss, Leb. Jes. 
Introd. 8 5. 



232 LECTUEE VI. 

and the judgment on the fact, sought to separate the 
two, and explained away the supernatural element, such 
as miracles, as being orientalisms in the narrative, 
adapted to an infant age, which an enlightened age 
.must translate into the language of ordinary events. 

Eichhorn at Gottingen 68 applied this view to the 
Old Testament. Deeming miracles impossible, he did 
not regard them as fraud, but admitted on the contrary 
that the agents or narrators honestly believed them. 
The supernatural was not imparted to deceive, but was 
the result of oriental modes of speech, such as hyper- 
bole, parable, or ellipsis, in which the steps by which 
the process was performed were omitted. The smoke 
of Sinai was considered a thunderstorm ; the shining 
of Moses's face a natural phenomenon. 

The principles which Eichhorn applied to the Old 
Testament, Paulus of Jena extended to the New. 09 
The miraculous cures were explained by an ellipsis in 
the omission of the natural remedies ; the casting out 
of devils as the power of a wise man over the insane ; 
the transfiguration as the confused recollection of sleep- 
ing men, avIio saw Jesus with two unknown friends, in 
the beautiful light of the morning among the moun- 
tains : nay, trespassing on still more holy ground, he 
dared impiously to explain away the resurrection of our 
blessed Lord by the hypothesis that his death was only 
apparent. These are a specimen of the mode of exe- 
gesis adopted in this school, which is usually specifically 
called Rationalism. In this mode Jesus appeared to 

88 Eichhorn (1752-1827), one of the most learned men of his age. For 
illustrations see his Einleituncf, § 435, and cfr. § 421. The instances cited 
in the text, from one of his works which the writer could not consult, are 
quoted from the British Quarterly Review, No. 26 ; cfr. also Strauss, Leben 
Jesu, § 6. 

0! ' In his Exeget. Handb. des Neuen Test. The account will be found 
by referring to the respective narratives. See also his commentary on the 
miracle of the tribute money, and of the feeding the multitudes. See 
Kahnis, pp. (171-6). Eichhornstopped short when he came to apply his 
principles to the New Testament. L. Bauer (Jlebr. Mythol.), Gabler, 
Vater, Bertholdt, Von Lengerke, and Von Bbhlen, though some of them 
were affected by later influences, belonged in the main to this rationalist 
critical school. 



LECTURE VI. 233 

be merely a wise and virtuous man ; and his miracles 
were merely acts of skill or accident. Paulus pre- 
sented this as the original Christianity. The theory 
did not last long, save in the mind of its author, who 
lived until a recent period, to see the entire change of 
critical belief. Attributing the supernatural to igno- 
rance, it did not even propose, like the later schools, 
to explain the marvellousness of the phenomena, 
objectively by so plausible a theory as legends, nor 
subjectively by myths : 7U it was too clumsy, not 
to say irreverent, an explanation of the facts to 
satisfy a people of deep and poetical soul like the Ger- 
mans. 

While this is a specimen of the critical side of 
rationalism, its dogmatic side varied from natural ethics 
to a kind of Socinianism. But in all alike, as its name 
would imply, it not only asserted that there is only one 
universal revelation, which takes place through obser- 
vation of nature and man's reason ; but that Christian- 
ity was not designed to teach any mysterious truths, 
but only to confirm the religious teaching of reason ; 
and that no one ought to recognise as true that which 
cannot be proved to him rationally. The doctrine of 
a Trinity was necessarily disbelieved ; the death of 
Christ regarded as an historic event, or a symbol that 
sacrifices were abolished. Holiness was reduced to 
morality. Extreme veneration for the Bible was called 
Bibliolatry. 71 Religion was represented as acting by 
natnral motives : the ethical superseded the historic. 
The early theologians of this dogmatic branch of the 

70 The difference of legend and myth is now well known. " Myth is 
the creation of a fact out of an idea ; legend the seeing an idea in a fact." 
Strauss, Lcb. Jes. Einl. § 10. The myth is purely the work of imagina- 
tion, the legend has a nucleus of fact. 

71 Henke, 1752-1809, Professor at Hclmstadt, is said to have been the 
first who made use of the term " Bibliolatry " in the preface to his Linea- 
menta Instit. Fidei Christiance. He probably however only brought it 
into use. (The writer remembers to have seen it occur somewhere earlier, 
but cannot recall the reference.) He was a church historian of great learn- 
ing, whose works have been frequently used for reference in Lect. V. 
Kahnis speaks with great respect (p. 17*7) of his earnestness. For Henke's 
position as a church historian see a note in the Preface to these Lectures. 



234: LECTURE VI. 

school are now little known ; bnt we may name Bret- ' 
Schneider 72 as the type of the least heretical portion of 
it at the close of this period, who believed Christianity 
to be a republication of natural religion, supernatural 
but reasonable : and, as the literary tendency of this 
school continued to exist in Kohr, 73 after the movement 

Iliad become extinct in other minds, so Wegscheider, 74 
until a recent period, was the solitary instance of the 
dogmatic position slightly modified. 

This completes the history of the first of the three 
movements, the destructive action of rationalism. The 
most flourishing period of this form of. it was about the 
beginning of the present century. AVe have seen it 
originating in the rational tone of "Wolff's philosophy, 
and the well-meant but ill-judged exegesis which Sem- 
ler exhibited under the pressure of sceptical difficulties. 
Stimulated by critical investigations, and by the strong 
wish which operated on our own theologians, to find 
the cause of everything, its adherents were led into a 

72 Conceiving Bretschneider see a preceding note on p. 231. Bret- 
Schneider shows in his reply to Mr. Rose, and in his Autobiography, that he 
was much hurt at being classed with the rationalists. In truth the dog- 
matic tendency which we are here describing admits, as is shown more fully 
in Note 21, (p. 413), of a twofold subdivision. (1) " Rationalists" proper, 
who are pure Socinians, but hardly believe in the supernatural element of 
revelation : such were Wegscheider and Ruhr ; also Echermann and C. F. 
A. Fritsche may be reckoned with the same school (see Kahnis, 17*7 seq. ; 
Am. Saintes, ch. vii.); and (2) "Rational Supcrnaturalists," like Bret- 
schneider, Schott of Jena (1780-1835), and Tzchirnerof Leipsic (1778- 
1828), who believed in a supernatural revelation, but held to the supremacy 
of reason ; — a position not very unlike Locke's in the Reasonableness of 
Christianity. The tone of opinion changed so much in Germany after 
1830, that Bretschneider, who in earlier life had been considered to lean 
towards orthodoxy as opposed to rationalism, appeared in later life, though 
really standing still, to side with the rationalists against the reaction which 
took place in favour of supernaturalism. A volume of sermons, translated 
by Baker in 1829, called Tlte German Pulpit, contains, along with a few 
sermons of more spiritual tone, many sermons by preachers of this school. 
See on this school Am. Saintes, ch. viii. Mr. Rose also has collected many 
facts in reference to this part of the subject; alsoStaudlin in his Gcscli. des 
Rat. und Supernal., and P. A. Stopfer {Arch, du Chrisliauismc, 1824), 
quoted bv Rose (second edition)* 

73 J. F. Ri.hr (1777-1848), Superintendent at Weimar; noted as a 
preacher. His Historical Geography of Palestine has been translated. 

74 Wegscheider (1771-1848); Professor at Halle. His chief work is 
Inst. Theol. Chr. Dogmat 1813. 



LECTUKE VI. 235 

disbelief of the supernatural, and ended in explaining 
away the miraculous, and reducing Christianity to 
natural religion. The movement, it will be observed, 
was professedly not intended to be destructive of Chris- 
tianity. Instead of being inimical, it originated with 
the clergy, and aimed at harmonizing Christianity with 
reason. But it contained its own death. The negative 
criticism is essentially temporary. 

The activity of thought was already producing 
change. We have previously stated that even the 
Kantian philosophy itself, though at first stimulating 
the appeal to reason, fostered a deeper perception of 
duty, and thus prepared the way for a moral reawaken- 
ing. 75 

We shall accordingly now proceed to state the 
causes which introduced new elements into the current 
of public thought ; and then describe the gradual 
progress of the reactionary movement which ensued 
from them. 

Four causes are usually assigned. The first of them 
was the introduction of new systems of speculative 
philosophy. 

It is not unusual, in those who have no taste for 
speculation, and who understand only the prosaic, 
though in some respects the truer, philosophy of Scot- 
land, to despise the great systems of German specula- 
tion. Yet, if the series be measured as an example of 
the power of the human mind, whatever may be the 
opinion formed in respect to its correctness, it stands 
among the most interesting efforts of thought. Though 
the writers can be matched by isolated examples in 
former ages, perhaps no series of writers exists, hardly 
even the Greek, certainly not the Neo-Platonist nor the 
Cartesian, which, in far-reaching penetration, in minute- 
ness of analysis, in brilliancy of imagination, in lofti- 
ness of genius, in poetry of expression, in grasp of intel- 
lect, in influence on every branch of thought or life, 
approximates to the series of illustrious thinkers which 

75 Ilundcshagen calls Kant a second Moses, on account of the moral 
revolution which his teaching; effected. 



236 LECTURE VI. 

commenced with Kant and ended with Hegel. 76 The 
two philosophers at this time whose teaching formed a 
new influence, were Fichte 77 and Jacobi. 78 Details in 
reference to their systems must be sought elsewhere. 79 
It is only possible here to indicate their central 
thought, in order to notice their effects on theological 
inquiry. 

We have seen that Kant had reconsidered the great 
problem, commenced by Descartes and Locke, concern- 
ing the ground of certitude, and the nature of knowl- 
edge ; and had revolutionised philosophy, by attrib- 
uting to the natural structure of the mind many of 
those ideas which had usually been supposed to be 
derived from experience. In his system he had left 
two elements, a formal and a material ; the formal, or 
innate forms, through which the mind gains knowledge, 
and the material, presented from external sources. It 
was the former or ideal element which was examined 
by Fichte ; the latter by Jacobi. 

Fichte began to teach at Jena soon after 1790. 
Grasping firmly Descartes' principle, " Cogito, ergo 
sum," he conceived that, as we can only know our- 
selves, there is no proof that the datum supposed to be 
external is anything but a form of our own conscious- 
ness ; and thus he arrived at a subjective idealism not 
unlike that of bishop Berkeley/ Under his view God 
was only an idea or form of thought ; a regulative prin- 
ciple of human belief, the moral order of which the 

76 i. e. Kant, Jacobi, Fichte, Schelling, ITegel; on whom see Morcll, 
ii. ch. v. § 2, and Chalybaus, History of Speculative -Philosophy. 

77 J. G. Fichte (1762-1814); Professor at Jena; deprived for the sup- 
posed atheistic tendency of his philosophy (1799) ; afterwards Professor at 
Berlin. His great work is his Wissenschafts-lehre, 1794. He was the 
author of the celebrated patriotic addresses to the German people. The 
educational institutions of Pestalozzi were founded on Fichte's philosophy, 
as Basedow's on Rousseau. See Kahilis, p. 216. 

15 Jacobi (1743-181 9) ; President of the academy of sciences at Munich. 

79 On Fichte see Chalybaus, ch. vi. and vii. ; Tennemann, Manual 
§ 400-5 ; Morell, ii. p. 89-122 ; Lewes, History of Philosophy ; Hansel's art. 
on Metaphysics in Encycl. Brit an. p. 607. On Jacobi see Chalybaus, ch. 
iii. ; Tennemann, § 415; Morell, ii. 402; Am. Saintes, part ii. ch. xiii. 

tu This atheistic corollary is not deducible from Berkeley's system, and 
was not designed by Fichte. 



LECTURE IV. 237 

mind was conscious in the universe; and, as atheism 
was suspected to follow as an inference from his views, 
he became the subject of persecution. But the in- 
stincts of the heart, as well as the arguments of the 
understanding, were too potent for him ; and when he 
had thus as it were shut up man within the circle of 
his own finite self, he strove to find a logical passage 
into a knowledge of the infinite by a principle anal- 
ogous to that of Spinoza ; viz. by regarding both self 
and the outer world, the subjective and objective, to be 
identified in some absolute self-existence, of which they 
were respectively phases/ 1 

This aim was only partially effected by Fichte, and 
was completed by his distinguished successor, Schel- 
ling. 6 * Schelling saw that the subjective tendency had 
been pushed too far ; and, relying on the spiritual sense 
through which men of all ages have conceived that they 
saw the infinite, the reality of which accordingly seems. 
to be attested by a universal induction, he tried to grasp 
the idea of the self-existent One, who is the one abso- 
lute Reality, the one eternal Being, the eternal Source 
from which all other light is derived, and from which 
all things clevelope. " Intellectual intuition " he 
thought to be the means by which we have this 
knowledge of the infinite, and are able to trace the 
development of it into its limitations in nature and 
in the mind. The method is analogous to that 
of Spinoza, save that the infinite is studied dynami- 
cally instead of mechanically, as a movement not a 
substance, in time not in space. 

The roll of these great thinkers, whose speculations 
were suggested by the formal side of Kant's philosophy, 
is not yet full. But the two which have been named 
wrote and affected thought, the one before, the other 
soon after, the commencement of the present century. 
Hegel followed in the same track, but influenced 

" See Chalybaiis, eh. viii.; raid Morell, ii. ITS. 

* 2 Schelling (l'Z'74-1854), Professor at Munich and Berlin. See Chaly- 
baiis, ch. ix-xii. ; Tennemann, § 406-11 ; Morell, ii. 122-161 ; Bartholmess, 
Hist. Grit, des JDoctr. Relig. b. ix. 



238 LECTURE VI. 

thought at a later period. 83 He too aimed at solving 
the same problem as Sclielling : he too sought to trans- 
cend the conditions of object and subject which limit 
thought ; but it was by assuming a representative or 
mediate faculty that transcends consciousness, and not, 
as Sclielling, an intuitional or presentative. 84 

Such were the philosophers who aimed at solving 
the problem of knowledge and being from the intel- 
lectual side. Jacobi on the other hand attempted it 
from the emotional. Perceiving the necessity of find- 
ing some justification for the material element which 
Kant had assumed in his philosophy, he sought it in 
faith, in intuition, in the direct inward revelation of 
truth to the human mind. He thought that, as sensa- 
tion gives us an immediate knowledge of the world, so 
there is an inward sense by which we have a direct and 
immediate revelation of supernatural truth. It is this 
inward revelation which gives us access to the material 
of truth. His position was analogous to that of Scliel- 
ling, but he asserted the element of feeling as well as 
intuition. 

These philosophies, of Ficlite, Sclielling, and Jacobi, 
formed one class of influences, which were operating 
about the beginning of the century, and were' the 
means of redeeming alike German literature and theol- 
ogy. Their first effect was to produce examination of 
the primary principles of belief, to excite inquiry ; 
and, though at first only reinforcing the idea of moral- 
ity, they ultimately drew men out of themselves into 
aspirations after the infinite spirit, and developed the 
sense of dependence, of humility, of unselfishness, of 
spirituality. They produced indeed evil effects in pan- 
theism and ideology ; 85 but the results were partial, the 
good was general. The problem, What is truth ? — was 
through their means remitted to men for reconsidera- 
tion ; and the answers to it elicited, from the one 

83 1770-1831. See Lect. VII. 

b4 See some remarks on this point in Mr. Hansel's Lecture on the Philo- 
sophy of Kant. 
b5 Lect. VII. 



LECTURE VI. 239 

school, — It is tlmt which I can know : — from the other, 
— It is that which I can intuitively feel : — threw men 
upon those unalterable and infallible instincts which 
God has set in the human breast as the everlasting 
landmarks of truth, the study of wdiich lifts men ulti- 
mately out of error. 

These systems had even a still more direct effect on 
the public mind. They were the means of creating a 
literature, which insinuated itself into public thought, 
and familiarised society with spiritual apprehensions 
long obliterated. The school of literature commonly 
called the Romantic, 86 commencing with such writers 
as Schlegel and Novalis, fanciful as it may in some 
respects seem to be, created the same change in the 
belief and tastes of the German mind as the contem- 
porary school of Lake Poets in England. The German 
literature bore the marks either of the old scholasticism, 
or of the materialism introduced from France, or of the 
classic culture introduced by Lessing and his coadju- 
tors. The element now revived was the mediaeval 
element of chivalry, the high and lofty courage, the 
delicate aesthetic taste, which had marked the middle 
ages. Herder, 87 to whom Germany owes much, dis- 
gusted with the stoical and analytic spirit of the Kan- 
tian philosophy, had already attempted, and not in 
vain, to throw the mind back to an appreciation of old 
history, and especially had manifested an enthusiastic 
admiration of Hebrew literature ; but now, as if by one 
general movement, the public taste was turned to an 
appreciation of the freshness ot feeling, and fine ele- 
ments of character, which existed in the Christianity 
of the middle ages." 8 

b6 The Romantic school included L. F. Stolberg, the Schlegels, Tieck, 
Novalis (Hardenberg), Fouque. See Kahnis, p. 202 ; Morell, ii. 421 ; 
Vilmar. (English translation), p. 500 seq. ; Carlyle'a Essay on Novalis 
(Misc. Works, vol. ii.); and Bartholmess, ii. b. xi. 

b7 Herder, 1744-1803. See a previous note. His most interesting 
works were, the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry (translated 1802), and the Philos- 
ophy of History (translated 1800). 

fc8 The influence of the movement extended into the Roman catholic 
church ; and Hermes, Moehler, and Goerres, were affected by it. Hermes 
(l'ZiS— 1831) was Professor at Bonn; and, endeavouring to find a philoso- 



240 LECTURE VI. 

This literary movement prepared the way for and 
accompanied another, which, though occurring a little 
later, may be reckoned as the third influence which 
caused a religious reaction. Indeed it is the one to 
which the Germans attribute the chief effect. It is 
found in the outburst of national patriotism which took 
place in the liberation wars of 1813 ; * 9 the spontaneous 
chivalry which made the heart of Germany beat as the 
heart of one man, to endeavour to hurl back Napoleon 
beyond the limits of the common fatherland. In that 
moment of deep public suffering, the poetry and piety 
of the human heart brought back the idea of God, and 
a spirit of moral earnestness. The national patriotism, 90 
which still lives in the poetry of the time, expelled 
selfishness : sorrow impressed men with a sense of the 
vanity of material things, and made their hearts yearn 
after the immaterial, the spiritual, the immortal : the 
sense of terror threw them upon the God of battles. It 
was the age of Marathon and Salamis revived; and the 
effect was not less wonderful. 91 

A fourth influence remains to be noticed, which 
was in its nature more strictly theological, and limited 
to the church. When after the return of peace the 
tercentenary of the Reformation was celebrated in. 
1817, an obscure theologian at Kiel, named Harms," 2 

phy for Romish doctrines, was opposed by his own church. Moehler, 
1796-1838, author of the Symbolik, which revived the controversy with 
Protestantism, and was answered by the most learned Protestant theolo- 
gians, has been pronounced (by Sehaff) to be the ablest Romish theologian 
since Bellarmine and Bossuet. Goerres (1776-1848), a mystic writer in 
Bavaria. See Am. Saintes, c. xx. ; and on Goerres see Quinet, (Euvr. vi. 
ch. vii. 

* 9 See Hundeshagen, Der BmUch Prot. § 12; Kahnis, p. 223. 

90 This patriotism still lives in the poetry of Koerner. 

91 This allusion is used by Kahnis (p/220). He also (p. 221) refers 
the great outburst of historic study which followed, to the historic sense 
then awakened. 

92 Harms (1778-1855). See Am. Saintes, part ii. ch. ix ; Kahnis, p. 
223 seq., where some of Harms's Theses are given. They are founded on 
the doctrinal spirit of the sixteenth century, and are full of force and 
humour. Some of them are directed against rationalism ; others are the 
asseveration of high Lutheran tenets. The following are specimens : No. 
3. " With the idea of a progressive reformation, in the manner in which 
it is at present understood, Lutheranism will be reformed back into hea- 



LECTURE VI. 241 

published a set of theses as supplements to the cele- 
brated theses of Luther, which, by the excitement and 
controversy unexpectedly occasioned by them, turned 
attention anew to the study of the reformational and 
biblical theology, and created a revival of the spiritual 
element which was too much forgotten. 

Such were the four influences — the philosophical, 
the literary, the political, the spiritual, — which entered 
into German life, and produced or increased the reaction 
that took place in German theology in the period which 
we are about to sketch. 

We placed the limits of this second period from 
about 1810 till the literary revolution caused by alarm 
at Strauss's work in 1835. 93 It was in 1810, in the 
depth of Prussian humiliation, when Halle had passed 
into one of the kingdoms dependent on France, that 
the university of Berlin was founded. Schleiermacher, 
Neander, and De Wette, were its teachers. The first 
was the soul of its theological teaching ; and through 
his agency it became the great source of a religious 
reaction. It is around these names that our studies 
most centre. The signs indeed of some other move- 
ments are traceable. The deistic rationalism is not 
dead, but it is dying : it is a thing of the past : a return 
to strict dogmatic orthodoxy is also visible in the Lu- 
theran clergy rather than in the university ; but it is as 
yet in its infancy : and a new form of gnosticism is 
observable in the philosophy of Hegel, but the full 
development of it belongs to the next period. The 
held is now occupied by the partial reaction to ortho- 
doxy, which aimed at a reconciliation of science and- 
piety, of criticism and faith. 9 * Schleiermacher, with 
his follower Neander, will typify the philosophical and 

thenism." No. 21. " la the sixteenth century the pardon of sins cost 
money after all ; in the nineteenth it may be had without money, for people 
help themselves to it." See Pelt in Herzog's Real. Encyclop. sub voc. 

93 On this second period, see Schwarz's Geschichte der Neuesten Tlieo- 
logie, b. i. ; and for brief notices of the whole of the German movement, gee 
Hagenbach's Dogmengeschichte (period 5). 

84 It has been more recently, for this reason, called the Mediation-The- 
ology ( Vermittellunqs-TIteologie). 
11 






■ii 



242 LECTUEE VI. 

more orthodox side of it ; perhaps De Wette, and at 
the end of the period Ewald, the critical. 

Schleiermacher 95 was by education and sympathy 
eminently fitted to attempt the harmony of science and 
faith, to which he devoted his life. Gifted with an 
acute and penetrating intellect, capable of grappling 
with the highest problems of philosophy and the 
minutest details of criticism, he could sympathise with 
the intellectual movement of the old rationalism ; 
while his fine moral sensibility, the depth and passion - 
ateness of his sympathy, the exquisite delicacy of his 
taste and brilliancy of imagination, were in perfect har- 
mony with the literary and aesthetic revival which was 
commencing. German to the very soul, he possessed 
an enthusiastic sympathy with the great literary move- 
ments of his age, philosophical, classical, or romantic. 
The diligent student and translator of Plato, 98 his soul 
was enchanted with the mixture at once of genius, 
poetry, feeling, and dialectic, which marks that prince 
of thinkers, and he was prepared by it for understand- 
ing the speculations of his time. The dialectical process 
through which Plato's mind had passed (30) represents 
not improbably, in some degree, the history of Schleier- 
macher's own mental development as traceable in his 
works. The conviction derived from Plato's early dia- 
logues, that the mind, in travelling outward to study 
the objective, could not prove the highest realities, but 
must have faith in its own faculties, prepared him for 
imbibing the philosophy of Jacobi. The looking in- 

96 Schleiermacher (1768-1834). His Lebcn in Briefen (1858) has 
been recently translated. His philosophical and religious stand-point is 
avgII discussed, and some portions of his works analysed, in the Rev! E. A. 
Vaughan's Essays and Remains (reprinted from the British Quarterly Re- 
view, No. 18). A brief explanation of his philosophy is seen in Morell's 
History of Philosophy, ii. 433, and Julius Scheller's Vorlesungen uber 
Schleicrmaclier, 1844. His religious views are criticised, with extracts, in 
Amand Saintes, part ii. ch. xiv-xvi ; Kahnis, 204. seq. ; Liicke, Stud, und 
Krit. 1834, H. 4. The facts of his life are given in the Weston. Rev. lor 
July, 1861. 

90 He joined F. Schlegel in the plan of translation, and continued it 
after Schlegel had retired from it. He did not however complete the 
whole of Plato. The parts finished were published at intervals from 1804- 
27. The introductions to the dialogues are valuable. 



LECTURE VI. 



243 



ward to the deep utterances of the soul, the interpreta- 
tion of the objective world by means of the internal, 
prepared him for Fichte. The mystical ' attempt to 
understand the ideas themselves, to use the archetype 
for creating an ontology from the objective side, 
observable in Plato's latest works, found its parallel in 
Schelling. Schleiermacher had large sympathies with 
these three processes, but mainly with the first ; which 
was to be expected from his purpose. Aiming at gain- 
ing spiritual certitude rather than speculating for intel- 
lectual gratification, Jacobi's philosophy appeared to 
combine the excellences of the other two systems, the 
subjective character of the one, and the intuitional of 
the other ; with the additional advantage of seeming to 
give expression to the instincts of the heart, as well as 
the intuitions of the mind. Beyond all these qualities, 
Schleiermacher inherited from his Moravian education 
the spirit of pietism, which, almost extinguished by the 
recent activity of mind, had retired to the quiet sphere 
where a Stilling 97 or an Oberlin 98 communed with God 
and laboured for man. 

Possessing therefore the two great elements which 
had been united in the Reformation, — endowed on the 
one hand with the largest sympathy with every depart- 
ment of the intellectual movement, and the mastery of 
its ripest erudition, and at the same time with a soul 
kindled with a hearty love for Christianity, — he was 
fitted to become the Ooryphoeus of a new reformation, 
to attempt again a final reconciliation of knowledge and 
faith. Whether we view him in his own natural gifts 
and susceptibilities ; in the aim of his life ; in his mix- 
ture of reason and love, of philosophy and criticism, of 

97 J. H. Jung Stilling ( 1*740-1 8 17), a distinguished oculist in Westpha- 
lia, who employed himself in acts of religious usefulness. His works were 
published in 1835. His Autobiography, written by desire of Goethe, has 
been translated. See an article on him in the Foreign Quarterly Review, 
vol. xxi. 

98 Oberlin (1740-1826), the interesting pastor of the Vos'grs mountains, 
who united efforts for. civilization with piety, and the temporal improvement 
of his people with the spiritual. His memoir has been written in English. 
To the same class of saintly men about the end of the last century belong- 
ed Uamann, Lavater, and Claudius. See Kahnis, p. 80 seq. 



24:4: LECTUEE VI. 

enthusiasm and wisdom, of orthodoxy and heresy ; or 
regard the transitory character of his work, the perma- 
nence of his influence ; church history offers no parallel 
to him since the days of Origen. 99 

His early education was received in the university 
of Halle ; an institution which had long been the home 
of pietism, and has continued with but few intervals 1 to 
evince much of the same Christian spirit. He became 
professor there early in the century, 2 until the town 
passed, as already stated, into the power of the French. 
He removed to Berlin when that university was found- 
ed', 3 and continued to exercise his influence there, from 
the pulpit and the professor's chair, for a quarter of a 
century, until his death. 4 

Before the conclusion of the last century, while still 
the literary influence of Weimar was at its height, he 
wrote Discourses on Religion, 5 to arouse the German 
mind to self-consciousness ; winch produced as stirring 
an effect in religion 6 as Fichte's patriotic addresses to 
the German nation subsequently in politics ; and from 
them may be dated the first movement of spiritual 
renovation, as from the latter the first of German 
liberation from foreign control. In successive works 
his views on ethics and religion were gradually devel- 
oped, until, in his Glaiibenslehre (31) he produced one of 
the most important theological systems ever conceived. 
We can give no idea of the compass exhibited in 
that work, nor spare time to trace the growth in Schlei- 
ermacher's own mind as new influences like that of 



99 Mr. R. A. Vaughan, in the Essay above cited, compares Schlcier- 
macherwith Hugo St. Victor (on whom see Ritter, Chr. Phil. viii. 9. 2). 
The analogy with Origen is close. Speaking technically, the difference 
would be, that the Neo-Platonic school, to which Origen belonged, was 
rather one of "Objective Idealism " like Schelling; Schlciermacher's of 
"Subjective Idealism" like Fichte. 

1 The Rationalist and Socinian element was taught by Wegscheider. 

2 In 1802. 

3 Halle was taken by the French in 1800 ; the university of Berlin was 
founded in 1810. 

4 He died in 1834. 6 See note 31 (p. 428.) 

6 Neander's witness to the effect produced by them is quoted in Kahnis, 
p. 208. 



LECTURE VI. 245 

Harms, which he rejected, indirectly influenced him ; 
but we must be content to define his general position in 
its destructive and constructive aspects. 

The fundamental principles 7 ■ were, that truth in 
theology was not to be attained by reason, but by an 
insight, which he called the Christian consciousness, 8 
which we should call Christian experience ; and that 
piety consists in spiritual feeling, not in morality. 
Both were corollaries from his philosophical prin- 
ciples. 

There are two parts, both in the intellectual and 
emotional branches of our nature ; — in the emotional, a 
feeling of dependence in the presence of the Infinite, 
which is the seat of religion ; and a consciousness of 
power, which is the source of action and seat of moral- 
ity ; — and in the intellectual, a faith or intuition which 
apprehends God and truth ; and critical faculties, which 
act upon the matter presented and form science. 9 In 
making these distinctions, Schleiermacher struck a 
blow at the old. rationalism, which had identified on 
the one hand religion and morality, and on the other 
intuition and reason. Hence from this point of view 
he was led to explain Christianity, when contrasted 
with other religions, subjectively on the emotional 
side, as the most perfect state of the feeling of depen- 
dence ; and on the intellectual, as the intuition of 
Christianity and Christ's work : and the organ for truth 
in Christianity was regarded to be the special form of 
insight which apprehends Christ, just as natural intui- 
tion apprehends God ; which insight was called the 
Christian consciousness. 10 Thus far many will agree 

7 Cfr. Glaubemlchre, § 3-6. 8 Selbst bewuszt-seyn. 

9 Schleiermacher's views are rarely put with sharpness of form ; and 
as they varied in the manner shown in Note 31, it is hardly possible to lay 
down a fixed account of his system. The following remarks are rather 
the spirit of his Glaubcnslehre than an analysis of it. His psychological 
views are seen in § 1-4 of that treatise (ed. 1842) ; but the Reden, pp. 58, 
59, and the introduction by his pupil Schweizer to the Entwurf eines sys- 
tems der sittenlehrc, 1835, besides his posthumous philosophical works, 
ought also to be consulted. His psychological views are nearly reproduced 
in MorelPs Philosophy of Reliqion, ch. iii. 

i0 § 7-10; and also § 11-14. 



246 LECTURE VI. 

with him. Perhaps no nobler analysis of the religions 
faculties has ever been given. Eeligion was placed on 
a new basis : a home was found for it in the human 
mind distinct from reason. The old rationalism was 
shown to be untrue in its psychology. The distinctness 
of religion was asserted ; and the necessity of spiritual 
insight and of sympathy with Christian life asserted 
to be as necessary for appreciating Christianity, as 
aesthetic insight for art. 

In its reconstruction of Christian truth, however, 
fewer will coincide. Following out the same princi- 
ples ; in the same manner as he regarded the intuitions 
of human nature to be the last appeal of truth in art or 
morals, so he made the collective Christian conscious- 
ness the last standard of appeal in Christianity. The 
dependence therefore on apostolic teaching was not the 
appeal to an external authority, but merely to that 
which w T as the best exponent of the early religious con- 
sciousness of Christendom in its purest age. 11 The 
Christian church existed before the Christian scrip- 
tures. The New Testament w T as written for believers, 
appealing to their religious consciousness, not dictating 
to it. Inspiration is not indeed thus reduced to genius, 
but to the religious consciousness, and is different only 
in degree, and not in kind, from the pious intuitions of 
saintly men. The Bible becomes the record of religious 
truth, not its vehicle ; . a witness to the Christian con- 
sciousness of apostolic times, not an external standard 
for all time. In this respect Schleiermacher was not 
repeating the teaching of the reformation of the six- 
teenth age, but was passing beyond it, and abandoning 
its reverence for scripture. 

From this point we may see how his views of doc- 
trine as well as his criticism of scripture were affected 
by this theory. For in his view of fundamental doc- 
trines, such as sin, and the redeeming work of Christ, 
inasmuch as his appeal was made to the collective con- 
sciousness, those aspects of doctrine only were regarded 

11 § 129-131. 






LECTURE VI. 247 

as important, or even real, which were appropriated by 
the consciousness, or understood by it. 1 * Sin was ac- 
cordingly presented rather as unholiness than as guilt 
before God ; 13 redemption, rather as sanctification than 
as justification ; Christ's death as a- mere subordinate 
act in his life of self-sacrifice, not the one oblation for 
the world's sin ; H atonement regarded to be the setting 
forth of the union of God with man ; and the mode of 
arriving at a state of salvation, 15 to be a realisation of 
the union of man with God, through a kind of mystical 
conception of the brotherhood of Christ. 16 

Hence, as might be expected, the dogmatic reality 
of such doctrines as the Trinity was weakened. 17 The 
deity of the Son, as distinct from his superhuman char- 
acter, became unimportant, save as the historical em- 
bodiment of the ideal union of God with humanity. 18 
The Spirit was viewed, not as a personal agent, but as 
a living activity, having its seat in the Christian con- 
sciousness of the church. 19 The objective in each case 
was absorbed in the spiritual, as formerly in the old 
rationalism it had been degraded into the natural. It 
followed also that the Christian consciousness, thus 
able to find as it were a philosophy of religion, and of 
the material apprehended by the consciousness of 
inspired men, possessed an instinct to distinguish the 
unimportant from the important in scripture, and 
valued more highly the eternal ideas intended than the 
historic garb under which they were presented. 

The ideological tendency, as it is now called, 20 the 
natural longing of the philosophical mind that tries to 

12 His views on sin are given § G5-85; and on the work of Christ, 
§ 100-105. 

13 § 68. " § 104. 

15 The mode of reconciliation is treated in § 106-112, and indirectly 
in the Weihnachtsfeier. Mr. Vaughan compares it with Osiander's view 
in the sixteenth century. 

16 His views may be seen in § 50-56, especially § 54. His system in 
earlier life almost resembled pantheism, as in his praise of Spinoza. See 
Eeden, p. 471. " § 110-112. 

lb The person of Christ is discussed § 93-99. Vaughan compares the 
view with that of Justin Martyr. See also Strauss's Leben Jesu y § 148. 
19 § 121-125. 2U See Note 24 (p. 421). 



248 



LECTUEE YI. 






\U [ 



rise beyond facts into their causes, to penetrate behind 
phenomena into ideas, grows np in a country, as is seen 
by the example of ancient Greece, when the popular 
creed and the scientific have become discordant. Sug- 
gested in Germany by the old rationalism, it had been 
especially stimulated by the subjective philosophy of 
Kant and Fichte. Historic facts were the expression 
of subjective forms of thought. The Non-ego was a 
form, in which the Ego was expressing itself. This 
theory, suggested to Schleiermacher from without, fell 
in with his own views as above developed, and affected 
his critical inquiries. When he involved himself in the 
great questions of the higher criticism, which have been 
already treated in connexion with Sender, subjective 
criticism 21 was used in an exaggerated manner, not 
merely to suggest hypotheses, or to check deductions 
by Christian appreciation, but as a substitute a priori 
for historic investigation. In the controversy as to the 
composition of the Gospels, which will be hereafter 
explained, he was led, by his ideological theory and his 
instinctive perception of the relative importance of doc- 
trines in theological perspective, to abandon the histor- 
ical importance of miracles as compared with doctrine, 
and also the verity of the early history of Christ's life, 
considered to have been communicated by tradition ; 
while he held fast to the moral and historical reality of 
the latter. 22 

2i His critical is much less important than his philosophical position. 
The same spirit of seriousness marks his writings in this department. Two 
of his chief critical works are, his Ueber den sogenannten ersten Brief dcs 
Paulus an den Timotlieits, 180V, and Ueber die Schriften des Lukes, ein 
Kritischer Versuch, 1817, translated into English 1825. The reasons 
given for his appreciation of the Gospel of St. John in the Weihnachts- 
feicr, als) his posthumous work, Hermeneutik und Kritik, 1838, and his 
Einleitwng ins Neue Test. 1845, ought also to be taken into account in 
estimating his exegetical views. 

2a The above remarks on Schleiermacher will perhaps be considered 
severe by those who know his works, and will be regarded as putting the 
worst face on his S3 7 stem. The criticism however of the late Mr. Vaughan, 
who deeply appreciated Schleiermacher, and had devoted much patient 
study to his works, and who viewed him from the stand-point of English 
orthodoxy, coincides with the above estimate of him. A criticism on 
Schleiermacher from Bretschneider's point of view may be seen in his 
Dogmatik, i. p. 93-115. 






LECTUEE VI. 249 

These remarks must suffice to point out the position '&««£ ^PJ^&fr 
of Schleiermacher. We have seen how completely hetf/f * 4 ^C 
caught the influences of his time, absorbed them, andy^.^/^aC, 
transmitted them. If his teaching was defective in its 
constructive side ; if he did not attain the firm grasp 
of objective verity which is implied in perfect doctrinal, 
not to say critical, orthodoxy ; he at least gave the 
death-blow to the old rationalism, which, either from an 
empirical or a rational point of view, proposed to gain 
such a philosophy of religion as reduced it to morality. 
He rekindled spiritual apprehensions ; he above all 
drew attention to the peculiar character of Christianity, 
as something more than the republication of natural 
religion, in the same manner that the Christian con- 
sciousness offered something more than merely moral 
experience. He set forth, however imperfectly, the 
idea of redemption, and the personality of the Redeem- 
er ; and awakened religious aspirations, which led his 
successors to a deeper appreciation of the truth as it is 
in Jesus. Much of his theology, and some part of his 
philosophy, had only a temporary interest relatively to 
his times ; but his influence was perpetual. The faults 
were those of his age ; the excellencies were his own. 
Men caught his deep love to a personal Christ, without 
imbibing his doctrinal opinions. His own views be- 
came more evangelical as his life went on, and the 
views of his disciples more deeply scriptural than those 
of their master. Thus the light kindled by him waxed 
purer and purer. The mantle remained after the 
prophet's spirit had ascended to the God that gave 
it. 

In strict truth he did not found a school. Though 
his mind was dialectical, he had too much poetry to do 
this. Genius, as has been often observed, does not 
create a school, but kindles an influence. The uni- 
versity of Berlin, the very centre of intellectual great- 
ness in every department from its foundation, was the 
first seat of Schleiermacher's influence ; and the polit- 
ical importance of the capital added impulse to the 
movement. The reaction extended to other universi- 



/ «r/A 



250 LECTUEE VI. 

j r f ties, 23 and not only marked the chief theologians of an 
farA+Cifv&f orthodox tendency which are commonly known to us," 
J 6f. JfdLsd -^Tholuck, Twesten, Nitzch, Julius Muller, Olshausen, 
*** dc/LtUisr~ — ^ u * even modified the extreme rationalist party, and 
1**dU*4 niL$^ n?>e ^ * ts mnuence among theologians of the church 

' J J2ucl*> -^ * s i m P 0SS i°^ e to specify the views of those who 
"were the chief representatives of the effects of Schleier- 
macher's teaching. One however, his friend and col- 
league, deserves mention, the well-known church his- 
torian Neander. 3G Brought up a Jew, he passed into 
Christianity, like some of the early fathers, through the 
gate of Platonism ; and, knowing by experience that 
free inquiry had been the means of his own conversion, 
he ever stood forth with a noble courage as the advo- 

23 Especially at Bonn, which was founded in 1818. 

24 The following theologians were influenced chiefly by the spirit of 
Schleiermacher : Tholuck, professor at Halle, author of various well-known 
works, (see the expression of his views in the tract, the Guido and Julius, 
or true Consecration of the Doubter, in reply to De Wette's Thcodor) ; 
Twesten, successor of Schleierniaeher at Berlin, author of the well-known 
Dogmatik ; H. Olshausen, the commentator ; Nitzch, author of the Hand- 
book of Doctrine (translated) ; Julius Muller, writer of the able work on 
the Nature of Sin ; Ullmann, editor of the Studien und Kritiken, the or- 
gan of the party. Also Sach, Stier, Tittmann, Umbreit, Ebrart, Hagcn- 
bach, Baumgarten-Crusius, Uundeshagen, Bleek, Liicke, Lange, belong to 
the same party ; and Gieseler also in the main. Their doctrine is called 
the Deutsche Theologie. Bunsen must also perhaps be classed with them, 
though much freer and less biblical than the others. The writings of the 
late archdeacon Hare are perhaps no inapt English parallel to the tone of 
these teachers. 

25 More especially Moehlcr, named above (p. 2-39, note), was influenced. 
The modern Catholic theologians are to be treated in the forthcoming (3rdJ 
edition of C. Schwarz's Gesch. der Neuesten Theologie. ■ 

20 For Neander's life and character as a theologian and church historian, 
see the interesting particulars gathered in the British Quarterly Review^ 
No. 24, for Nov. 1850, and in the Bibliothcca Sacra, vol. viii. Neander 
(1789-1850) was a Jew by birth. About 1805 he embraced Christianity 
(his life at this period is seen in his letters to Chamisso) ; studied at Halle 
under Schleiermacher 1806; at Gbttingcn under Planck ; was made Pro- 
fessor at Berlin 1S12 ; author of various early monographs; of the Church 
History, 1825; History of the Planting of the Church, 1832; Life of 
Christ, 183V. His opinions may be learned from the Preface to the third 
edition of his Life of Christ, and the Preface to his Church History. On 
his position as a church historian, see Hagenbach in Studien und Kritiken 
for 1851. 



LECTURE VI. 251 

eato of full and fair investigation, feeling confidence 
that Christianity could endure the test. More medita- 
tive and less dialectical than S'chleiermacher, and too 
original, to be an imitator, he "surpassed him in the 
deeper appreciation of sin and of redemption ; placing 
sin rather in alienation of will than in the sense of dis- 
cordance, and holding more firmly the existence of 
some objective reality in the anthropopathic expression 
of the wrath of God removed by Christ's death. 27 His 
great employment in life was. history ; not, like his 
master, philosophy and criticism. Viewing lmman 
nature from the subjective stand-point, the central 
thought of his historical works was, that Christianity 
is a life resting on a person, rather than a system rest- 
ing on a dogma. Hence he was able to find the har- 
mony of reason and faith from the human side instead 
of the divine, by noticing the adaptation of the divine 
work to lmman wants. The inspiration of the scrip- 
tural writers was viewed as dynamical not mechanical, 
spiritual not literal ; 28 and Christianity as the great 
element of human progress, being the divine 'life on 
earth which God had kindled through the gift of his 
Son. 29 The great aim accordingly of Neander in his 
historical sketches was to exhibit the Christian church 
as the philosophy of history, and God's work in Christ, 
realised in the piety of the faithful, as the philosophy 
of the Christian church. The history of the church in 
his view is the record of the Christian consciousness in 
the world. The subjective and mystical spirit engen- 
dered by such a conception, was in danger of converting 
history into a series of biographies ; but the deep in- 
fluence which it possessed in contributing to foster the 
reaction against the old rationalism will be obvious. 
It becomes us to speak with reverence of the writings 
of a man whose labours have been the means of turn- 

27 His views ou sin and redemption are chiefly to be gathered from 
criticisms on the Pauline doctrine in the History of the Planting of the 
Church (vol. ii.) ; and on the Christian doctrine in vol. ii. of his Church 
History. 

M Introduction to the Life of Christ, § 6. 

23 Preface to Church History (first edition). 



252 



LECTURE VI. 



ing many to Christ. Though lacking form as works 
of art, yet, if they be compared with works of grander 
type, where church history has been treated as an epic, 
we cannot help feeling that the depth of spiritual per- 
ception and of psychological analysis compensates for 
the artistic defects. We are conducted by them from 
the outside to the inside ; from things to thoughts ; 
from institutions to doctrines ; from the accidents of 
Christianity to the essence. 

Keander's teaching, while an offshoot from Schleier- 
macher, marks the highest point to which the principles 
of the master could .be carried. It advances farther in 
the hearty love for Christ and for revelation,. and bears 
fewer traces of the ancient spirit of rationalism ; being 
allied to it in few respects, save in the wish constantly 
exhibited to appropriate that which is believed ; but 
the wants of the heart, not the conceptions of the under- 
standing, are made the gauge of divine truth, and the 
interpreter of the divine volume. 

We pointed out that the great reaction in the pres- 
ent century was marked not only by the philosophical 
and doctrinal school just described, but by a contem- 
poraneous one, which employed itself on literary and 
critical inquiries in reference to the Bible, and was the 
continuation of the earlier rationalist criticism on im- 
proved principles. The most important name repre- 
senting this critical movement in the beginning of the 
period was De AVette. (32) Perhaps too we may with- 
out injustice mention, as a type of it at the close of the 
period, a theologian who is almost too original to admit 
of being classified — the learned Ewald. (32) 

De Wette was nurtured amid the old rationalism 
<»f Jena, at the time of its greatest power, about the 
beginning of the present century ; and imbibed the 
peculiar modification • of the doctrines of Kant and 
Jacobi which was presented in the philosophy of 
Fries. 30 It was the appeal to subjective feeling thence 

50 On Fries' philosophy see Morell, ii. 418 ; Tcnnemann's Manual, 
§ 122. Accepting Kant's categories, he held the existence of an inward 
faith-principle, which gives an insight into the real nature of things ; but 



LECTURE VI. 253 

derived which preserved him from the coldness of older 
critics, and caused his labours to contribute to the 
reaction. His works were very various ; but the 
earlier of them were especially devoted to the examina- 
tion of the Old Testament, and the later to the New. 

The peculiarity of this school generally may be said 
to be, a disposition to investigate both Testaments for 
their own sake as literature, not for the further purpose 
of discovering doctrine. These writers are primarily 
literary critics, not dogmatic theologians. Like the 
older rationalists, they are occupied largely with biblical 
interpretation ; but, perceiving the hollowness of their 
attempt to explain away moral and spiritual mysteries 
by reference to material events, they transfer to the Bible 
the theories used in the contemporary investigations in 
classical history, and explain the Biblical wonders by 
the hypothesis of legends or of myths. Though they 
ignore the miraculous and supernatural equally with 
the older rationalists, they allow the spiritual in addi- 
tion to the moral and natural, and thus take a more 
scholarlike and elevated view of the Hebrew history 
and literature. The system of interpretation adopted 
is the transition from the previous one, which admitted 
the facts but explained them away, to the succeeding 
one of Strauss, which denies the facts, and accounts for 
the belief in them by psychological causes. 

. The wish to give a possible basis for the existence 
of legend, by interposing a chasm between the events 
and the record of them, stimulated the pursuit of the 
branch of criticism slightly touched on by their prede- 
cessors, which investigates the origin and date of scrip- 
ture books. They transferred to the Hebrew literature 
the critical method by which "Wolf had destroyed the 
unity of Homer, and Mebuhr the credibility of Livy. 
Not a single book, — history, poetry, or prophecy, — was 
left unexamined. The inquiries of this kind, instituted 
with reference to the book of Daniel, were alluded to 

only as subjective truths, and as tests of truth. The church historian Ease 
(see Kahnis, p. 236) is moulded by this philosophy. 



254 LECTURE VI. 

in a former lecture ; 32 and those which relate to the 
Gospels will occur hereafter. 33 At present it will only 
be possible to specify a single instance in illustration, 
of these inquiries — the celebrated one which relates to 
the authorship and composition of the Pentateuch. It 
is the one to which most labour-has been devoted, and 
is an excellent instance for exhibiting the slow but 
progressive improvement and growing caution shown 
in the mode of exercising them. 34 

As early as the time of Hobbes and Spinoza it was 
perceived that the Pentateuch contains a few allusions 
which seem to have been inserted after the time of 
Moses ; a circumstance which they, as well as P. 
Simon, explained, by referring them to the sacred editor 
Ezra, who is thought to have arranged the canon : but 
about the middle of the last century a French physi- 
cian, Astruc, 35 pointed out a circumstance which has 
introduced an entirely new element into the discussion 
of -the question ; viz. the distinction in the use of the 
two Hebrew names for God, — Elohim and Jehovah. It 
will be necessary to offer a brief explanation of this dis- 
tinction, in order that we may be able to perceive the 
line at which fact ends and hypothesis commences, and 
understand the character of the criticism which we are 
describing. 

It is now generally admitted that the word Elohim 

32 Lect. IT. p. 61. Similar discussions have arisen with regard to the 
integrity and purpose of the books of Job, Zechariah, and Isaiah. Partic- 
ulars of these literary questions will be found in Hengstenberg's articles 
Job and Isaiah in Kitto's Bibl. CycL, and in Davidson's Introduction to 
the Old Testament, in the chapters concerning these books. The classical 
student need hardly be reminded of the close analogy between these 
literary investigations in the Hebrew literature and those which were con- 
ducted by F. A. Wolf in respect to Homer, and by other scholars in re- 
ference to various classical authors. 

33 Lect. VII. 

34 Perhaps the clearest account of the controversy will be found in 
Michel Nicholas, Etudes Critiques sur la Bible, Essay i. 1862. See also 
Ilengstenberg's Authentic des Pentatcuches (Die Gottesnamen im Pentat. i. 
181 seq. ; Havernick's Introd. to the Pentateuch (English translation), p. 
56, &c. ; Keifs Lehrbuch, p. 82, &c. ; and Dr. S. Davidson's Introduction 
to the Old Testament (1862), pp. 1-135. 

35 Conjectures ' sur les Memo'ires Originaua' du livre de la Genese, 
1753. 



LECTURE VI. 255 

is the name for Deity, as worshipped by the Hebrew 
patriarchs ; Jehovah, the conception of Deity which is 
at the root of the Mosaic theocracy. 30 El, or the plural 
Elohim, means literally " the powers," (the plural form 
being either, as some unreasonably think, a trace of 
early polytheism, or more probably merely emphatic, 37 ) 
and is connected with the name for God commonly 
used in the Semitic nations. Jehovah 3S means " self- 
existent," and is the name specially communicated to 
the Israelites. The idea of power or superiority in the 
object of worship was conveyed by Elohim ; that of 
self-existence, spirituality, by Jehovah. Elohim was 
generic, and could be applied to the gods of the hea- 
then ; Jehovah was specific, the covenant God of Mo- 
ses. (33) 

In this age, when words are separated from things, we 
are apt to lose sight of the importance of the difference 
of names in an early age of the world. The modern in- 
vestigations however of comparative mythology enable 
us to realize the fact, that in the childhood of the world 
words implied real differences in things ; not merely in 
our conceptions, but in the thing conceived. 39 But 
the explanations above offered will show that, inde- 
pendently of the general law of mind just noticed, a 
really different moral conception was offered by Provi- 
dence to the Hebrew mind through the employment 
of these two words. 

Nor was the difference unknown or forgotten in 
later ages of Jewish history. The fifty-third Psalm, 
for example, is a repetition of the fourteenth with the 

36 See Exodus vi. 3. 

37 The older critics however think that the plural form relates to the 
plurality of persons in the divine Being. 

38 Jehovah is translated in the English version, the Lord. 

39 Independently of comparative mythology, which is still an hypo- 
thesis, there is evidence of the fact in the very derivations constantly offered 
of words in the Old Testament, as well as in the modern investigations con- 
cerning language. Ewald has shown in an interesting manner the means 
afforded by the Hebrew proper names for gaining a conception of Hebrew 
life (see his article on Names in Kitto's Bibl. Encycl.); and a similar anal- 
ysis has recently been applied to the Indo-Germanic languages in Pictet's 
Les Origines Indo-E%iropeennes, 1859. 



256 LECTURE VI. 

name Eloliim altered into Jehovah. In the two first 
of the five books into which the Psalms are divided, 
the arrangement has been thought to be not uncon- 
nected with the distinction of these names. 40 In the 
nook of Job also the name Jehovah is used in the 
headings of the speeches of the dialogues ; but in the 
speeches of Job's friends, as not being Israelites, the 
name Elohim is used. 41 In the book of Nehemiah the 
name Elohim is almost always used, and in Ezra, Je- 
hovah ; and in the composition of proper names, which 
in ancient times were not merely, as now, symbolical, 
the names El and Jah respectively are employed in all 
ages of the Hebrew nation : and, though no exact law 
can be detected, it seems probable that in the great 
regal and prophetic age the name Jehovah was espe- 
cially used. (31) 

These remarks will both explain the difference of 
conception existing in the Hebrew names of Deity, and 
show that the Jews were aware of the distinction to a 
late period. When we advance farther, we pass from 
the region of fact into conjecture. 

The distinctness of conception implied in the two 
names has been made the basis of an hypothesis, in 
which they are used for discovering different elements 
in the Pentateuch. Throughout the book of Genesis 
especially, and slightly elsewhere, 42 the critics that we 

40 It is well known that the book of Fsalms is divided, in the Hebrew 
and the Septuagint, into five books; viz. Psalms i-xli; xlii-lxxii ; lxxiii- 
lxxxix ; xc-cvi ; cvii-cl ; each of them ending with a doxology, which is now 
inserted in the text of the psalm. In the first book the name Elohim 
occurs 15 times, and Jehovah 272 times; in the second, Elohim 164 times, 
and Jehovah 30 times. This computation is stated on the authority of Dr. 
Donaldson, Christian Orthodoxy. 

41 There are two exceptions, viz. i. 21, xii. 9, which Hengstenberg con- 
siders to prove the rule. On this subject see Hengstenberg's Dissertation 
on Job in Kitto's Bill. Cyclop, ii. 122, now reprinted in a volume of his 
Miscellaneous Essays. 

42 De Wette tries to exhibit traces in other books than Genesis, but 
unsuccessfully. It is in Genesis alone that the difference can be so clearly 
seen, that, even if the peculiar use had no theological meaning, which not 
even Hengstenberg denies, it must remain as a literary peculiarity. A list 
of the passages in Genesis which have been considered by these critics to 
represent the respective uses of the two names, is given in the learned and 



LECTURE VI. 257 

are describing have supposed that they detect at least 
two distinct narratives, with peculiarities of style, and 
differences or repetitions of statement ; which they have 
therefore regarded as proofs of the existence of different 
documents in the composition of the Pentateuch ; an 
Elohistic, in which the name Elohim, and a Jehovistic, 
in which the name Jehovah w T as used ; upon the respect- 
ive dates of which they have formed conjectures. 

Though we may object to these hazardous specula- 
tions, we shall perceive the alteration and increasing 
caution displayed in the criticism, if w T e trace briefly 
the successive opinions held on this particular subject. 

Astruc, who first dwelt on the distinction, regarded 
the separate works to be anterior to Moses, and to have 
been used by him in the construction of the Penta- 
teuch. 43 Eichhorn took the same view, but advanced 
the inquiry by a careful discrimination of the peculiar- 
ities which he thought to belong to each. Yater fol- 
lowed, and allowed the possibility of one collector of 
the narratives, but denied that it could be Moses. Thus 
far was the work of the older critical school of ration- 
alists. It was purely anatomical and negative. It is 
at this point that we perceive the alteration effected by 
the school which we are now contemplating. 

De Wette strove to penetrate more deeply into the 
question of the origin, and to attain a positive result. 
His discussion w T as marked by minute study ; and he 
changed the test for distinguishing the documents from 
the simple use of the names to more uncertain charac- 
teristics, which depended upon internal peculiarities of 
style and manner. The conclusion to which he came 
was, that the mass of the Pentateuch is based on the 
Elohistic document, with passages supplemented from 
the Jehovistic ; and he referred the age of both to a 
rather late part of the regal period. Ewald, with great 
learning and delicacy of handling, has reconsidered the 
question 44 and, though arriving at a most extraordinary 

reverently written article Genesis, in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, by Mr. 
J. J. S. Perowne. 

43 The references to these various authors will be found in M. Nicholas, 
i. 44 Gcschichte des Hebr. Volk. i. 75 scq. 



258 LECTURE VI. 

theory as to the manifold documents which have sup- 
plied the materials for the work, has thrown to a much 
earlier period the authorship of the main portion ; and 
the views of later critics are gradually tending in the 
same direction. Both study the Pentateuch as unin- 
spired literature ; but De Wette absurdly regarded it 
as an epic created by the priests, in the same manner 
as the Homeric epic by the rhapsodes : Ewald on the 
contrary considers it to be largely historic. 45 

This statement of mere results, too brief to exhibit 
the critical acumen shown at different points of the in- 
quiry even where it is most full of peril, will show the 
increasing learning displayed, and the appreciation of 
valuable literary characteristics. It will be perceived 
that prepossessions still predominate over this criticism ; 
but they are of a different kind from those which ex- 
isted earlier. They are not the result of moral objec- 
tions to the narratives, but of the contemporary critical 
spirit in secular literature. The discrepancy of result 
obtained by the process is a fair practical argument 
which proves its uncertainty ; but its adherents allow 
that both in art and literature internal evidence admits 
of few canons, and consequently that the result of criti- 
cism could only admit of probability. 

The general summary of the movement shows a 
steady advance in criticism, as was before shown in 
doctrine, toward a higher and more spiritual standard. 

45 In writing the history of this dispute, as being here viewed only in 
its literary aspect, it will be seen that my object has been simply to select 
it, for the purpose of exhibiting the gradual increase of taste as well as of 
learning shown by the German critics in reference to questions of the 
"higher criticism." Concerning the theological aspect of it we can all 
form an opinion, which would probably be in a great degree condemnatory ; 
but concerning the literary, none but a few eminent Hebrew scholars. 
Some of the greatest of them, Gesenius, De Wette, Ewald, Hupfeld, Knobel, 
have given in their adherence to some form of the theory above describ- 
ed. The references to the works of Hengstcnberg, Hiivernick, and Keil, 
who have written on the other side, are given above. The rashness of 
some forms of criticism must not make us abandon a wholesome use of it ; 
and a literary peculiarity such as that described, if it really exist, demands 
the reverent study of those who wish to learn the mind of the divine Spirit, 
as it was communicated to the ancient chosen people, or expressed in the 
written word. Compare McCauFs Essay, Aids to Faith, p. 105. 






LECTURE VI. 259 

It is not the recognition of the inspired authority of 
scripture, but it is some approach to.it. Instead of the 
hasty denunciation of narratives or of books as im- 
posture, seen in the "Wolfenbuttel Fragments, or the 
merely rationalist view of Eichhorn and Paulus, we 
perceive the recognition of spiritual and psychological 
mysteries as subjects of examination ; and even when 
the result established is altogether unsatisfactory, valu- 
able materials have been collected for future students. 
If we were to abandon our position of traditional or- 
thodoxy, and accept that of Schleiermacher in doctrine, 
or of De Wette in criticism, it would be a retrogres- 
sion ; but for the Germans of their time it was a prog- 
ress from doubt towards faith. It was not orthodoxy, 
but it was the first approach to it. 

This double aspect, philosophical and critical, of the 
reaction, brings us to the end of the second period in 
the history of German theological thought. 

It has already been stated that the elements of other 
movements existed, which were hereafter to develope ; 
and that one of these was an attempt, originating in 
the philosophy of Hegel, to reconstruct the harmony 
of reason and faith from the intellectual, as distinct 
from the emotional side. It bore some analogy to the 
gnosticism of the early church ; and the critical side of 
it gave birth to Strauss. 

We have traced the antecedent causes which pro- 
duced rationalism, and two out of the three periods 
into which we divided the history of it. We are halt- 
ing before reaching the final act of the drama ; but we 
already begin to see the direction in which the plot is 
developing. 

It is when a great movement of mind or of society 
can be thus viewed as a whole, in its antecedents and 
its consequents, that we can form a judgment on its 
real nature, and estimate its purpose and use. As in 
viewing works of art, so in order to observe correctly 
the great works of God's natural providence, we must 
reduce them to their true perspective. It is the pecu- 
liarity of great movements of mind, that when so 



260 LECTUKE VI. 

viewed tliey do not appear to "be all shadow and form- 
less, nor acts of meaningless impiety. They are pro- 
ducts of intellectual antecedents, and perform their 
function in history. In nothing is the Divine image 
stamped on humanity, or the moral providence of God 
in the world, more visible, than in the circumstance, 
of which we have already had frequent proofs, that 
thought and honest inquiry, if allowed to act freely, 
without being repressed by material or political inter- 
ference, but checked only by spiritual and moral in- 
fluences, gradually attain to truth, appropriating good- 
ness, and rejecting evil. Thought seems to run on un- 
restrained, stimulated by human caprice, sometimes by 
sinful wilfulness ; yet it is seen really to be restrained 
by limits that are not of its own creation. In the 
world of conscious mind, as in unconscious matter, God 
hath set a law that shall not be broken. Reason, 
which creates the doubts, also allays them. It rebukes 
the unbelief of impiety, making the wrath of man to 
praise God ; and guides the honest inquirer to truth. 

A period of doubt is always sad ; but it would be 
an unmixed woe for an individual or a nation, if it were 
not made, in the order of a merciful Providence, the 
transition to a more deeply-seated faith. It is a means, 
not an end. 

You tell me, doubt is devil-bom. 

I know not ; one indeed I knew 

In many a subtle question versed, 

"Who touch' d a jarring lyre at first, 
But ever strove to make it true : 

Perplext in faith, but not in deeds, 

At last he beat his music out. 

There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds. 

He fought his doubts, and gathered strength, 
He would not make his judgment blind, 
He faced the spectres of the mind 

And laid them : thus he came at length. 

To find a stronger faith his own. 46 

46 Tennyson's In Mem<mam i § 95. 



LECTURE VI. 261 

Religious truth is open to those who will seek it 
with humility and prayer. 

In addition to the natural action of reason, the 
fatherly pity of God is nigh, to give help to all that ask 
it, and that endeavour to sanctify their studies to His 
honour. Even though the search be long, and a large 
portion of life be spent in the agony of baffled effort, 
the mind reaps improvement from its heart-sorrows, 
and at last receives the reward of its patient faith. 
" Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness, for they shall be filled." 47 If we are thankful 
to be spared the sorrows of the doubter, let us admire 
the wisdom and mercy shown in the process by which 
Providence rescues men or nations from the state of 
doubt. " The Lord God omnipotent reign eth ;" 48 and 
He shall reign for ever and ever. 

47 Matt. v. G. 48 Rev. xix. 6 



LECTURE VII. 

FREE THOUGHT I LN GERMANY SUBSEQUENTLY TO 1835 ; 
AND IN FRANCE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 



Matt. xiii. 52. 
Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
man that is an householder, which bringcth forth out of his treasure 
things new and old. 

THE last lecture was brought to a close before we 
reached the final forms assumed by German theol- 
ogy. In the present one we must complete the narra- 
tive ; and afterwards carry on the history of free thought 
in France, as affected by the influence of German litera- 
ture, from the period at which the narrative was pre- 
viously interrupted to the present time. 

We have noticed the traces of the reaction in favour 
of orthodoxy, which was produced in Germany by the 
influence of Schleiermacher. We treated the philoso- 
phical side of the movement, the vindication of the dis- 
tinctness of religion and ethics ; and also witnessed the 
improved tone in the critical, tending, if not to the re- 
cognition of a supernatural character in the holy scrip- 
tures, yet to a more spiritual appreciation of their literary 
characteristics, and of the psychological peculiarity of 
the facts recorded. We adverted also, in conclusion, to 
a rival philosophical influence, springing from the 
teaching of Hegel, which assisted the reaction by seek- 



LECTURE VII. 263 

ing a philosophical reconstruction of religion, though 
from a different point of view from Schleiermacher. ' 

It was this school which gave origin to the subse- 
quent movements in Germany. The sudden alteration 
in German thought induced by Strauss, which ushers in 
the modern period, arose from the union of the philo- 
sophical principles of this school with the criticism of 
that of L)e Wette. We must therefore endeavour to 
understand this movement, which forms the turning 
point between the reaction before described, which is 
the second of the three general divisions made of this 
portion of history, 1 and the forms which succeed con- 
stituting the third division. Hegel, 2 a name almost as 
important in its influence on the German mind as that 
of Goethe, has been already mentioned 3 as the last of 
that band of philosophers which strove to develop the 
mental as distinct from the material principle, presented 
in Kant's philosophy. Kant had completed the pro- 
cess of turning man's search inward, which Descartes 
had begun. Philosophy became psychology; the dis- 
covery of the limits of knowledge, rather than of the 
nature of the thing known. We have seen that Fichte 
and Schelling, not content with this result, had sought, 
though by opposite processes, to escape from this limit- 
ed knowledge ; to attain an ontology as well as a psy- 
chology. All philosophy aims at attaining a knowledge 
of reality, either a posteriori by means of generalisation, 
or a priori from the data of mind. These two philos- 
ophers strove to attain it by the latter mode ; but their 
method either lacked system, or failed in its results: 
their philosophy was poetry rather than logic. Hegel 
followed in their steps, but adopted a basis which ad- 
mitted of being developed in a formal system. The 
logical rigour of his method, and the encyclopaedic 

1 Lect. VI. p. 218. 

2 Hegel, mO-1831, Professor at Berlin after 1818. The rudiments 
of his system are in the Plienomenolocjy, written about 1806; the Logic 
gives the mature form of it about 18 1G ; the Encyclopedia its completion ; 
the two former works being embodied in the latter. For the sources for 
the study of his system, &e. see Note 35 at the end of this book. 

3 See p. 237. 



26-Jr LECTURE VII. 

grasp which it gave over knowledge, partly accounted 
as in the case of Spinoza or of Wolff, for its popularity. 
The universe was to be interpreted from the mind ; the 
laws of thought were the laws of things. The mi- 
crocosm and the macrocosm were one ; thought, and the 
mind that thinks ; or, more truly, both were phases of 
the universal mind which was unfolding. The mind of 
man could transcend the limits of the finite and phe- 
nomenal ; and, being able to apprehend the idea, the 
voov/xevov, absolutely, without condition, thus possessed 
the solution of any branch of universal knowledge by 
an a priori process. The problem of philosophy was, 
to find the laws of this evolution in thought, to catch 
the ideal when it strives to become immanent and to 
manifest itself in the actual. 

Without attempting here to explain the kind of 
threefold process, (35) according to which this evolu- 
tion takes place, it is better, as in the case of the former 
philosophies named, to exhibit the influence of the gen- 
eral method rather than the effects of particular theories 
inculcated by it. 

The method had many advantages, in displacing a 
low materialism, in stimulating loftiness of conception, 
and generating an historic study of every subject,- by its 
view of the universe as a development ; and also cre- 
ated a largeness of sympathy with differing views, by 
regarding all things as in transition, relative, true only 
in reference to their contradictory; and by considering 
all hypotheses to contain a germ of right, and to be the 
result of partial views of truth ; but it will also be ob- 
vious, that the method had its evil effects. For, when 
applied to any department, it produced a disposition to 
seize the principle, the idea, of which the concrete is the 
embodiment; to descend from the type upon the in- 
dividual. Its method was deductive and idealistic; 
giving being to abstractions, like the realism of the mid- 
dle ages. It lost the fact in the principle ; it per- 
sonified the genus. Philosophy became a vast mythol- 
ogy. 

When applied to Christianity, for example, it did 



lecture vn. 265 

not attempt to find a philosophic ground for it psycho- 
logically in the human aspirations, as Schleiermacher 
had done, 4 but objectively in the dogma. It discovered 
the ideal truth in religion, and regarded Christianity 
and Christ as being the manifestation of the effort of 
the great Spirit of the universe to convert the idea 
iuto act ; the symbol which expressed the speculative 
truth of the essential unity of the ideal and the real, of 
the divine and the human. Like the ancient Gnos- 
ticism, it believed in dogmatic Christianity, because it 
descended upon it from an dpriori principle, in which 
it found the explanation of it. Religion and philosophy 
were reconciled, because religion was made a phase of 
philosophy. 

This system was taught by its founder at Berlin 
from about 1820 to 1830, contemporary with that of 
Schleiermacher ; and the learned theologian Marhein- 
ecke 5 is the name best known of those who applied it 
to theology. It was regarded at that time as an in- 
strument of orthodoxy. 6 It had the advantage over 

4 Schleiermacher sought it in the consciousness of dependence, craving 
for an infinite object ; and regarded Christianity as supplying the means 
for the perfect harmony of this principle with the opposing one of voluntary 
power. Hence, the solution of difficulties in religion would be sought in 
such a system by seeing the adaptation of the Christian scheme to human 
needs, not in the solution of the mysteries themselves. 

5 Marheinecke (1*780-1846), Professor of Theology at Berlin, the author 
of many works, chiefly on dogmatic theology, of which his Symbolik, 1810, 
and Dogmatih, 1827, are the most important. See Bretschneider's ex- 
planation and criticism on his system (Dogmatik,\. 115-140). Perhaps 
the name of K. Daub (1765-1830), Professor at Heidelberg, ought also to 
be added. Originally Hegel's teacher, he adopted his pupil's system. See 
Kahnis's remarks, p. 244 seq., and Amand Saintes, part ii. ch. xvii. It has 
been usual to classify the followers of Hegel under the analogy of political 
parties in foreign, parliaments, thus: — in the extreme right, Heinrichs and 
Goeschel; in the right, Schaller, Erdmann, and Gabler; in the centre, 
Rosenkranz and Marheinecke ; in the left centre, Vatke, Snellmann, and 
Michelet; in the left, Strauss, Bruno Bauer, and Feuerbach. See Morcll, 
Hist, of Philosophy, ii. 199, 203. Several of these however are philoso- 
phers, rather than theologians. A simpler classification of the Hegelian 
theologians is into three parties : the first, Daub and Marheinecke, and more 
recently Dorner ; the second, Chr. Baur and the Tubingen school ; the third, 
Strauss, B. Bauer, and Feuerbach. 

6 See the article by Scherer in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 1861, 
p. 841 ; and on the influence of Hegel see Kahnis, p. 244 seq., and Am. 
Saintes, P. II. ch. 17 ; and Bartholmess, b. xii. 

12 



2QQ LECTUKE VII. 

the old rationalism, in that while using similarity of 
method in seeking to explain mysteries, it did not 
pare them down, but absorbed them in principles of 
philosophy ; and over the school of Schleiermacher, in 
that it was less subjective, less a matter of feeling, sup- 
plying a doctrine and not merely a spirit ; and there- 
fore it satisfied the longing of the mind for dogmatic 
truth, and at the same time more readily linked itself, 
ecclesiastically with churchlike and corporate tenden- 
cies, and politically with conservative and autocratic 
ones. Yet it is easy to see that its spirit was really far. 
less Christian than Schleiermacher's. For it not only 
confused again philosophy and religion, which his 
system had severed, but it proudly claimed to explain 
doctrines rationally where his had only sought to ap- 
propriate them intuition ally. It verged towards pan- 
theism. It was in danger of losing the historic fact in 
the idea ; of encouraging, as it is now sometimes called, 
the " ideological tendency ; " r whereas with Schleier- 
macher, the historic belief had only been regarded as 
less important than the emotional apprehension. Its 
a priori spirit created also a depreciation of the investi- 
gations which had been pursued by the critical school. 
It gave encouragement to the study of history; but it 
was to the history of philosophy, not to the investiga- 
tions conducted by historical criticism. 

Such, was the system which, along with those de- 
scribed in the last lecture, was regarded as contrib- 
uting to favour orthodox reaction, and was disputing 
theological preeminence with that of Schleiermacher, 
when a work was published by one of its disciples, 
which was the means, through the ferment produced, 
of altering completely the whole tone and course of 
German thought. It was the celebrated Life of Jesus 
by Strauss, 8 a criticism on the four biographies given in 
the gospels; a work in which the whole destructive 
movement was concentrated, with such singular ability 
and clearness, that hardly -any work of theology has 

7 Sec Note 24 (p. 412). 8 Lcbcn Jesu, 1835. 






LECTTJEE VII. 267 

subsequent! j been written without some notice of the 
propositions there maintained. 

It presented a double aspect: it was both philo- 
sophical and critical. Strauss added to a general ad- 
mission of the Hegelian point- of view a love for the 
critical studies so much neglected by that party. 
Brought up in the moderate orthodoxy of Tubingen, 
he had studied at Berlin under Schleiermacher, but 
caught the critical rather than the philosophical side of 
that master's teaching, and especially interested himself 
in the solution of the question relating to the origin 
and credibility of the Gospels, already partially consid- 
ered in the critical inquiries of the old rationalism, and 
of the school of De Wette. It was an investigation 
which in its nature, in the spirit in which it was de- 
cided, and in its similarity to the contemporaneous dis- 
cussions of classical criticism,. bore a close resemblance 
to that before described in reference to the Pentateuch. 
A few words of explanation concerning it are necessary, 
previous to th3 statement of the nature of Strauss's 
work. 

As early as the last century the resemblance between 
the three " synoptical " Evangelists had excited atten- 
tion ; and examination was directed to discover the 
cause. Some, as "Wetstein, 10 supposed that one or two 
of the Gospels were borrowed from the third ; others, 
as Michaelis " and Eichhorn, that the three were all de- 

9 The account of this controversy may be seen in bishop Marsh's Dis- 
sertation, ISO? ; and a continuation of the history subsequently to his work 
in the introduction to the Translation of Schleiermacher'' s Essay on St. 
Luke, 1825 (by the present Bp. Thirl wall). The controversy is also treat- 
ed with great learning and reverence by Dr. S. Davidson, Introd. to New 
Test. i. (3'73-425). Important references and quotations in regard to it 
are given in the Appendix to Tregelles'. edition of Hornets Introd. 10th ed. 
vol. iv. ; also see Amand Saintes, Hist. p. ii. 12 ; Renan's Etudes de VHist. 
Relig. (Ess. 3); Hase's Lcben Jesu ; Quinet's review of Strauss (CEuvres^ 
vol. iii). A series of studies on the subject is in course of publication in 
the Revue Germ. 1862, by Michel Nicholas. 

10 Wetstein, with Mill, Calmet, and others, regarded St. Mark's Gospel 
to be the epitome of St. Matthew's. Griesbach and Dr. Townson thought 
that St. Luke as well as St. Mark had seen the one by St. Matthew. A 
further list may be seen in Tregelles (as above), p. 042 ; and Davidson (as 
above). 

11 Michaelis regarded the Greek translator of St. Matthew to have had 



268 lecture vn. 

rived from one common original, now lost ; others, as 
Schleiermacher, that they were composed from many 
detached written narratives; others, as Herder, and 
subsequently Gieseler, that they were the committal to 
writing of the oral tradition common in the church. 
Thus, whether the Gospels were regarded as copies, or 
as being composed from earlier documents, or from 
primitive tradition, the effect was, that they were re- 
duced to the level of natural testimony, and instead of 
being three witnesses they became one. The fourth 
Gospel also was involved in uncertainty. Bretschnei- 
der added the full examination of it, and provoked a 
discussion concerning the alleged disagreement of its 
tone and statements with those of the synoptists. 12 
Thus a chasm was introduced between the events and 
the record of them ; and the testimony was reduced to 
traditional evidence. 

This alteration in the critical attempt to shake the 
evidence of independent authorship had been accom- 
panied by a corresponding change in the interpretation, 
as seen in the assaults made on the credibility of the 
facts narrated. In the hands of the English deists and 
of Reimarus this attack had been an allegation against 
the moral character of the writer. In Eichhorn and 
Paulusthe imputation of collusion had been superseded 
by the rationalistic interpretation, which, without de- 
nying the historical recital, denied the supernatural, 
and explained it away by reference to the peculiarities 

access to the same Greek document as St. Mark and St. Luke. Semlcr 
and Lessing advocated a Hebrew or Syriac original. Eichhorn adopted 
the theory of an Aramaic original, which was adopted with slight altera- 
tions by bishop Marsh. (It was criticised by bishop Randolph, by Mr. 
Vevsie, and in Falconer's Bampton Lectures, 1810.) Schleiermacher 
regarded the Gospels to be pieced together out of separate documents. 
Gieseler's hypothesis was put forward in 1818. 

12 Probabilia de Evangel, et Epist. Joanuis ' origine et indole, 1820. 
The theory suggested was, that it was written in the second century. It 
was well answered by Schott, Stein, and others. The controversy has 
been revived in more modern times; the Tubingen school denying the 
authorship to St. John, Ewald and others, asserting it. The subject is 
discussed in Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament, i. 233-313. 
See also two articles in the National lievieiv, No. 1. July 1855, and No. 9. 
July 1857. 



lecture vn. 269 

of time at which the events were described. The next 
step was to transfer the doubt to the recital itself, and 
to find, in the absence of contemporary evidence for the 
events, the possibility for legend, and, in the antecedent 
expectation of them, the possibility for myth. 

This was the state of the critical question with re- 
gard to the Gospels when the work of Strauss appeared. 
The Hegelian philosophy gave him the constructive 
side of his work, and criticism the destructive. Setting 
out with the preconception which had lain at the basis 
of German philosophy and theology since Kant, that the 
idea was more important than the fact, 13 the mythical 
interpretation of history furnished to him the medium 
for applying this conception as an engine of criticism. 

The mythical system of interpretation, though 
slightly suggested by his predecessors in criticism, was 
Strauss's great work. The difference between allegory, 
legend, and myth, is well known. Our blessed Lord's 
miracles would be allegories, if they were, as Woolston 
claimed, parables intentionally invented for purposes 
of moral instruction, or facts which had a mystical as 
well as literal meaning : they would be legends if, 
while containing a basis of fact, they were exaggerated 
by tradition : they would be myths if, without really 
occurring, they were the result of a general preconcep- 
tion that the Messiah ought to do mighty works, which 
thus gradually became translated into fact. A legend 
is a group of ideas round a nucleus of fact : a myth is 
an idea translated by mental realism into fact. A 
legend proceeds upwards into the past ; a myth down- 
wards into the future. 14 Strauss's peculiarity consisted 
in trying to show that if a small basis of fact, height- 

13 On the spirit of Kant's philosophy in this respect, see Strauss's own 
remarks, Leben Jesu, Introd. § 7. 

14 On the contrast of myth and legend there are some good remarks in 
Str-auss, who quotes George's Mythus und Sage for the explanation ; also 
in the Westminster Review for April 1847 (p. 149), an article which, 
though written in favour of Strauss, gives an instructive account of the 
object and position of his work. The history of Strauss's work, with its 
antecedents and consequents, mainly based on Schwarz (b. ii.) and on 
Seherer, but bearing marks of independent study, is given in Mr. F. C. 
Cook's Essay on Ideology in the Aids to Faith, 18G2. Theodore Parker 



270 LECTURE VII. 

ened by legend, be allowed in the gospel history, the 
influence of myth is a psychological cause sufficient to 
explain the remainder. The idea is regarded as prior 
to the ftict : the need of a deliverer, he pretends, created 
the idea of a saviour : the misinterpretation of old 
prophecy presented conditions which in the popular 
mind must be fulfilled by the Messiah. The gospel 
history is regarded as the attempt of the idea to realise 
itself in fact. 

The fundamental fallacy of the inquiry is apparent 
from one consideration. Legends are possible in any 
age ; myths, strictly so called, only in the earliest ages 
of a nation. Comj)arative philology has lately shown 
that mythology is connected with the formation of lan- 
guage, and restricted to an early period of the world's 
history. 15 But the encouragement offered to the mythic 
interpretation by Hegel's philosophy will be apparent. 
The mythus embodying itself in the facts of the gospel 
was the miniature of the process of universal nature. 
Everywhere the idea strives for realisation. 

The scheme of Strauss formed the link between 
philosophy and criticism. Philosophy had explained 
the doctrines of Christianity, but not the facts of Chris- 
tian history. Criticism had explained the facts by his- 
torical examination, but not by philosophy. Strauss 
attempted, for the first time, to present the philosoph- 
ical explanation of facts as well as doctrines. He ex- 
plained them, neither by charge of fraud, nor by his- 
torical causes, but by reference to the operation of a 
psychological law, the same which the Hegelian phi- 
losophy regarded as exemplified universally.' Early 
Christian fiction was resolved into a psychological law, 
regulated by a definite law of suggestion, of which 
plausible instances were traced. The gospel history 
was regarded to be partly a creation out of nothing, 

has given an accurate analysis, and of course a defence, of Strauss [Miscel- 
laneous Writings, p. 231). 

15 The new view of the nature of myths is developed in Max Midler's 
Essay on Comparative Mythology, Oxford Essays, 1856. See also Note l? 
(p. 4*50). 



lecture vn. 271 

partly an adaptation of real facts to preconceived ideas. 
This same philosophy, which thus contributed to the 
critical or destructive side of the theory, also furnished 
the reconstructive. The facts in Christianity were 
temporary, the ideas eternal. Christ was the type of 
humanity. (36) His life and death and resurrection 
were the symbol of the life, death, and resurrection, of 
humanity. The former were unimportant, the latter 
eternal. An exoteric religion for the people might ex- 
hibit the one : the esoteric for the philosopher might re- 
tain the other. 15 

This is Strauss's system and position. The book it- 
self comprises three parts ; — first, an historic introduc- 
tion, in which the history of previous criticism and of 
ITermeneutics, and of the formation of the mythical 
theory is most ably presented : 17 — secondly, the main 
body of the work, which consists of a critical examina- 
tion of the life of Christ, 18 subdivided into three parts ; 
viz. an examination of the birth and childhood of Je- 
sus, 10 of his public life, 20 and of his death ; 21 the object 
of which is to point out in the narrative the historic or 
mythic elements : — and thirdly, a philosophical con- 
clusion, 22 in which the doctrinal significance of the life 
is given. As a specimen of didactic and critical wri- 
ting it is perhaps unrivalled in the German literature. 
The second part is the embodiment of all the difficulties 
which destructive criticism had presented. If the his- 
toric sketches captivate by their clearness, the critical do 
so by their surprising acuteness and dialectical power ; 

16 Strauss, Leben Jem, § 152. (ii. p. 113.) 

17 § 1-16. It contains a history of the different explanations of sacred 
legends among the Greeks ; the allegorical systems of the Hebrews (Philo,) 
and Christians (Origen) ; the system of the Deists ; and the Wolfenbuttcl 
Fragmentist ; the naturalist mode of Eichhorn and Paulus, and the moral 
of Kant ; lastly, the rise of the mythic, both in reference to the Old and 
New Testaments. Then the discussion of the possibility of myths in the 
Gospels, and a description of the evangelical mythus. 

^ § 1-142. la § 17-43. ™ § 44-110. 21 § 111-142. 

22 § 143-152. The author gives the dogmatic import of the life of 
Jesus, criticising the Christology of Orthodoxy, of Rationalism, of Schleier- 
macher, the Symbolic of Kant and De Wette, the Hegelian; and draws his 
own conclusions. 






272 lecture vn. 

and the philosophical by the appreciation of the ideal 
beauty of the very doctrines, the historic embodiment 
of which is denied. It is the work of a mind endowed 
with remarkable analytical power ; in which the force 
of reflective theory has overwhelmed the intuitional 
perception of the personality and originality of the 
sacred character which is the subject of his study. 23 

The effect of the publication of the work was aston- 
ishing. It produced a religious panic unequalled since 
the Wolfenbiittel fragments. The first impulse of the 
Prussian government was to prevent the introduction 
of the book into the Prussian kingdom ; but Neander 
stood up to resist the proposal, with a courage which 
showed his firm confidence in the permanent victory of 
truth ; saying that it must be answered by argument, 
not suppressed by force ; and forthwith wrote his own 
beautiful work on the life of Christ in reply to it. Yet 
neither the peculiarity of Strauss's theory nor the na- 
ture of the work gave ground for the panic. For the 
book was in truth not a novelty, but merely a fuller 
development of principles already existing in Ger- 
many ; and Schleiermacher, before his death, when 
contemplating the tendency of religious criticism, had 
predicted 24 the probability of such an attempt being 
made. Nor was the work irreligious and blasphemous 
in its spirit, like the attacks of the last century. It 
professed to be executed solely in the interests of sci- 
ence ; and, though subversive of historic religion, to be 
conservative of ideal. The critical part was only a 
means to an end ; its real basis was speculative. But 
the literary aspect of the question was lost sight of in 
the religious. The heart spoke forth its terror at the 
idea of losing its most sacred hope, the object of its 
deepest trust, an historic Saviour. The alarm had not 
been anticipated by the author of the attack. He is 



23 This idea is well brought out in Kenan's critique on Strauss. {Etudes 
Bella. Essai iii.) 

' 2i One passage of this kind is quoted by Amand Saintcs (p. 263) from 
Liickc in Stud, und Krit. vol. ii. p. 489. 






LECTURE VII. 273 

described by a hostile critic 25 as a ' young man full of 
candour, of sweetness, and modesty, of a spirit almost 
mystical, and as it were saddened by the disturbance 
which had been occasioned.' But he became a martyr 
for his act, and an outcast from the sympathy of re- 
ligious men. Unable to exercise his singular gifts of 
teaching in any professorship, he has continued to write 
from time to time literary monographs of more defiant 
tone ; proofs of his ability, but vehicles for the expres- 
sion of his opinions. (37) 

The effect on the different theological critics through- 
out Germany, both friendly and hostile, w^as so remark- 
able, that the year 1835, in which the book was pub- 
lished, is as memorable in theology as the year 1848 in 
politics. The work carried criticism and philosophy to 
its farthest limits, and demanded from theologians of all 
classes a thorough reconsideration of the subject of the 
origines of Christianity. 26 The ablest theologians either 
wrote in refutation of it, or reconsidered their own 
opinions by the light of its criticisms. (38) The alarm 
at the loss of the historic basis of Christianity created a 
strong reaction in favour of the Lutheran orthodoxy, the 
commencement of which has already been named ; 27 
and gave the death-blow, not only to the Hegelian 

25 Edgar Quinet (CEuvres, iii. 316, reprinted from Revue des Deux 
Mondex, Sept. 1838). His words are, " Un jeune homine plein de caa- 
deur, de douceur, de modestie, une ame presque mystique et connne at- 
tristee lu bruit qu'elle a cause." The unaltered view which Strauss now 
takes of his own work, after the interval of twenty-five years, is' given in 
the Vorrede to his Gesprdche von JIutten ubersetzt und erlautert, 1860. 
It is quoted in the National Review, No. 23, art. *7. 

20 The effect which it produced is described, with details of the answers 
written, in book ii. of the excellent little work of C. Schwarz already 
named, Geschichte der Neuesten Theologie, 1856. This part of the work 
is translated into French, with some useful notes, in the Rev. Germ. vol. 
ix. parts ii. and iii. See Note 38 (p. 000). The most useful replies are those of 
Neander and Dorner. Dr. Beard also published a valuable series of papers 
called Voices of the Church (1845), containing translations of the Essay by 
Quinet above quoted, of one by A. Cocquerel (pere), and others. Dr. 
Mill's work on The Application of Pantheistic Principles to the Gospels 
(1840) is intended also as a reply. The Life of Christ, contained in vol. i. 
of Dean Milman's History of Christianity, also contains important remarks 
on Strauss's scheme. 

27 P. 241. 

12* 



274 LECTUKE VII. 

school, but almost to the passion for ontological specu- 
lation in Germany. While some thus assumed a 
churchly and conservative aspect, others outstripped 
Strauss, and, uniting with French positivism, advanced 
into utter pantheism and materialism. 

The Hegelian party, to which Strauss belonged, and 
which would fain have been excused from this reductio 
ad dbsicrdum of its principles, 28 became split into sec- 
tions through the various attempts made to parry the 
blow, and reconstruct their system on. the philosophical 
side. The critical tendency had now too found a 
home, by means of Strauss's work, among the Hege- 
lians ; and this led to the creation of a new school of 
historical criticism to be hereafter described, which 
arose in Strauss's own university of Tubingen. 2 '"' 

We have now explained the circumstances attending 
the change which closed the second and introduced the 
third period in German theology. 

In this third period, which is that of contemporary 
thought, we may distinguish four broadly marked ten- 
dencies ; three within the church, and one directly infi- 
del in character outside of it. 3u 

The last named, which we shall describe first, 
started from Strauss's position, and advanced still far- 
ther. It sprang from the destructive side of the Hegeli- 
an philosophy, and has sometimes been named the young 
Hegelian school. From the first it lacked the air of re- 
spect toward religion which Strauss did not throw aside 
in his work ; and it also extended itself from theology 
to politics. 



23 Scherer clearly brings out this relation of Strauss's work, in § 5 of 
the article before quoted. 

29 Accordingly it will be understood that the mention of " the old 
Tubingen school " of the last century denotes a Tietist school like that of 
]>engel or Pfaff ; the mention of " the new Tubingen school " means one 
of ultra -rationalism. 

30 The materials for the following sketch have been largely supplied by 
the work of Schwarz, and partly by an article before cited in the West- 
minster Revieio for April 1857. Schwarz, after devoting the first chapter 
of book ii. to the Straussian contests, devotes the second and first three 
chapters of book iii. to the history of these four movements. 



LECTURE VII. 275 

Bruno Bauer, 31 a Professor at Berlin, by turning 
suddenly round from the most orthodox to the most 
heterodox position in his school, may be classed with 
Strauss in his method, though not in his spirit. He 
carried out Stranss's critical examination of the Gospels 
with a coarse ridicule ; and extended it by denying the 
historic basis of fact, and. imputing the myth to the per- 
sonal creation of the individual writer. But his succes- 
sors advanced even farther. As Bauer developed the 
critical side of Strauss, Feuerbach 32 and Euge 33 devel- 
oped the philosophical, and destroyed the very idea of 
religion itself, by showing that the idea of God or of 
religion is of human construction, the giving objective 
existence to an idea. The aspiration, instead of guar- 
anteeing the existence of an object toward which it is 
directed, is represented as creating it. This was the 
final result of the subjective point of view of the Kant- 
ian philosophy, and of the idealism of Hegel. Reason 

31 See Amand Saintes, book ii. ch. 18 ; ITase, § 450 ; Hundeshagen, Der 
Deut. Prot. § 17. Bruno Bauer, born 1809, was once Professor at Bonn, 
and teacher at Berlin. In his first manner he showed himself to be a 
disciple of Hegel, in works published from 1835 to 1839, such as a criticism 
on Strauss, and also on the Old Testament. From 1839 to. 1842 he ex- 
hibited a destimctive tendency directed against the sacred books ; e. g. a 
work on the Prussian church and science, and -a criticism on St. John's 
Gospel. The persecution which he encountered stimulating his opposition, 
he showed in his next works (in 1842 and 1843) a spirit of defiance in his 
Das Eklekte Christenthum. From 1843 to 1849 he connected himself 
with questions of politics, and wrote largely on social science. Since that 
period he has again written, both in theology, criticisms of the Gospels and 
Epistles, and on politics. A list of his works and a sketch of his mental 
character may be found in Vapereau, Diet, des Contemp. 1858. 

32 On this movement see Schwarz, b. iii. ch. i. ; and on the German 
political socialism see the Nortlt British Review, No. 22, for Aug. 1S4S. 
Feuerbach (see Vapereau) was author of many w^orks on the history of 
philosophy about 1833 to 1845. His chief works on religion were Das 

Wesen des Christenthums (1851), and Das Wesen der Religion, 1845. 
The former work was translated in 1854, and contains a discussion (1) of 
the true or anthropological essence of religion ; (2) of the false or theo- 
logical. His collected works have been published. The Hallischc Jaltr- 
bucher was his organ. Criticisms on his school are given by Bartholmess 
(Hist. Crit. des Doctr. de la Phil. Mod. b. xiii. ch. ii.), and by E. Kenan 
(Etudes de VHist. Relig. p. 405). 

33 Ruge, once a teacher at Halle ; went into voluntary exile at Pari g, 
like Heine, in 1843 ; was mixed in the revolutionary schemes of 1848 ; and 
in 1850 became an exile in England. See Vapereau. 



276 



LECTUEE VII. 




must, it was pretended, be followed, to whatever extent 
it contradicts the feelings. Theology becomes anthro- 
pology ; religion, mythology ; pantheism, atheism ; man, 
collective humanity, becomes the. sole object of the 
belief and respect which had been previously given to 
Deity ; religion vanishes in morality. The love of man 
becomes the substitute for the love of God. This was 
a position analogous to that which positivism reached 
in France, but from a mental instead of a physical point 
of view. This form of thought found expression in lit- 
erature through the poetry of TIeine, s4 and linked itself 
with political theories of communism more extreme 
than the contemporary ones in France. 

Still the lowest point was not reached : religion was 
treated as a psychological peculiarity, and the virtue of 
benevolence recognised. Eut when religion was felt to 
be only an idea, and the belief of the supernatural to 
be the great obstacle to political reform, an intense feel- 
ing of antipathy was aroused ; and Schmidt, 35 under the 
pseudonym of Stirner, reached the naturalistic point of 
view held by Volney, the worship of self-love. This 
new school, which had arisen in the few years subse- 
quent to Strauss's work, mingled itself with the revolu- 
tionary movements of Germany in 1848, and was. the 
means of exciting the alarm which caused the suppres- 
sion of them. Since that date the school has been ex- 
tinct as a literary movement. 

The tendency just described was. entirely destruc- 
tive. The three others, which remain for consideration, 
exist within the church, and are in their nature recon- 
structive, and aim at repelling the attacks of Strauss and 



34 See above, note on p. 16. Gutskow and Mundt belonged to the 
same school. The former a dramatic poet, whose works against religion 
were about 1835, in the Prefaces to Letters of F. Schlegel, &c. ; the latter, 
librarian at Berlin, was noted for his political connexion with the party of 
young Germany, rather than for any assault on religion. See Vapereau 
for an account of his works. The spirit of this school was tinged with 
bitterness against existing institutions, 

35 Gaspard Schmidt (1806-1856) wrote in 1845, under the pseudonym 
of Max Stirner, Dcr einzige und scin Eigenthum, His later works were 
on political economy. 



LECTURE vn. 277 

of other previous critics. The one that we shall de- 
scribe first is that which is most rationalistic, and ap- 
proaches most nearly to Strauss' s views; and is fre- 
quently called, from the Swabian university which has 
been its stronghold, the Tiibingen school. 36 It is a 
lineal offshoot in some slight degree from the school of 
Hegel, and more decidedly from the critical school of 
De Wette, before named. But it stands contrasted 
with the latter by caution, as marked as that which 
separates recent critics 37 of Roman history from earlier 
ones, like Niebuhr. Like Strauss, it restricts its atten- 
tion to the E"ew Testament ; but it is a direct reaction 
against his inclination to undervalue the historical ele- 
ment. The great problem presented to it is, to recon- 
struct the history of early Christianity, to reinvestigate 
the genesis of the gospel biographies and doctrine. 
Declining to approach the books of the New Testament 
with dogmatic preconceptions, it breaks with the past, 
and interprets them by the historic method ; proposing 
for its -fundamental principle to interpret scripture ex- 
actly like any other literary work. Pretending that 
after the ravages of criticism, the Gospels cannot be 
regarded as true history, but only as miscellaneous ma- 
terials for true history, it takes its stand on four of the 

36 As schools of thought have been occasionally named in this narrative 
in connexion with universities, it may facilitate clearness to collect together 
the few hints which have been given concerning the subject." In the first 
period previous to 1790, we showed the theological tendencies of the four 
universities, Gottingen, Leipsic, Halle, and Tubingen : next, in the period 
after 1790, the state of Jena as the home of rationalism and of the Kantian 
philosophy. In our second period we pointed out the condition of Berlin 
as the seat of philosophical reaction under Schleiermacher and Hegel; and 
indirectly of the universities which represented the school of De Wette. 
In the third period, the school of Lutheran reaction has specially existed in 
Berlin, Leipsic, Erlangen, Rostock, and the Russian university of Dorpat ; 
the school of "Mediation" chiefly at Berlin, Heidelberg, Halle, and Bonn; 
and the historico-critical at Tubingen. It may be useful to add, for the 
completion of the account, that the Tubingen school is now almost extinct 
in its original home ; and that the two universities which at the present 
time represent the freest criticism are supposed to be Giessen and Jena. 
The latter is marked by the realistic school of philosophy described in Note 
41. Hilgenfeld, the best representative of the Tubingen school, is Pro- 
fessor there ; see Note 89, at the end of this volume. 

37 E. g. Th. Momraaen. 



id 



LECTURE VII. 



Epistles of St. Paul, the genuineness of .which, it cannot 
doubt, and finds in the struggle of Jew and Gentile its 
theory of Christianity. 38 Christianity is not regarded 
as miraculous, but as an offshoot of Judaism, which re- 
ceived its final form by the contest of the Petrine or 
Judseo-Christian party, and the Pauline or Gentile ; 
which contest is considered by it not to have been de- 
cided till late in the second century. By the aid of this 
theory, constructed from the few books which it admits 
to be of undoubted genuineness, it guides itself in the 
examination of the remainder, tracing them to party 
interests which determined their aim, pronouncing on 
their object and date by reference to it. 39 In this way 
it arrives at most extraordinary conclusions in reference 
to some of them. Not one single book, except four of 
St. Paul's Epistles, is regarded to be authentic. The 
Gospel called that of St. John is considered as a treatise 
of Alexandrian philosophy, written late in the second 
.century to support the theory of the J. 070?. It will 
thus be perceived that the inquiry, though it professes 
to be objective, yet has a subjective cast. 

The leader of this school was Christian Baur, (39) 
lately deceased ; a man of large erudition ; a wonder 
of acuteness even in Germany ; distinguished for the 
extraordinary ability displayed in his reply to the at- 
tacks made on Protestantism by the celebrated Roman 
catholic theologian Moehler : and though the doctrinal 
result of the school is ethics or pure Socinianism and 
•naturalism, and the critical opinions obviously are most 
extravagant, the sagacity and learning shown in the 
monographs published by it make them some of the 
most instructive, as sources of information, in modern 
theology, to those who know how to use them aright. 
From an orthodox point of view the effect of the school 
is most destructive ; but, if viewed in reference to the 
preceding schools, it manifests a tenacious hold over the 



38 Viz. the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and the two to 
Corinth. 

30 An explanation and criticism of some of these opinions are given in 
'Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament. 



LECTUKE VII. 279 

historic side of Christianity, and has affected in a liter- 
ary way the schools formerly described, which claim 
lineage from the older critics. 

As the tendency just described is the modern repre- 
sentative of the older critical schools ; so the next holds 
a similar position to the philosophical.. 

The school is frequently on this account described 
by the same name, of "Mediation theology," 4U ' origin- 
ally applied to Schleiermacher, because it attempts to 
unite science with faith, a true use of reason with a 
belief in scripture. It comprises the chief theological 
names of Germany, some of whom were disciples of 
Schleiermacher, others of the orthodox portion of the 
Hegelian party. Their object is not simply, like the 
revivers of Lutheran orthodoxy, to surrender the judg- 
ment to an external authority in .the church, nor to give 
unbounded liberty to it like the critical school : not 
going back like the one to the ancient faith of the 
church, nor progressing like the other to new discov- 
eries in religion, they seek to understand that which 
they believe, to find a philosophy for religion and 
Christianity. 

Two theologians stand out above the others, as 
evincing vitality of thought, and boldly attempting to 
grapple with the philosophical problems; — Dorner 41 
and Rothe," both very original, but bearing traces of 
the influence of their predecessors. The former, mould- 
ed by the Hegelian school, investigates the Christologi- 

40 Vermittellungs-Theohgie, and sometimes called Deutsche Theologie. 
Pee Sehwarz, book iii. ch. ii. The organs of this party are the Studien 
und Kritihen and the Neue Evangel. Kirchcnzcitung. 

41 Dorner, born in 1809; successively Professor in several universities : 
he has recently gone to Berlin. It is a matter of gratification that his 
great work, described in the text, is now in course of translation. The 
account of the successive steps through which it passed may be seen in 
the American Bibliothcca Sacra for 1 849. Also an account of it is given 
in Theodore Parker's Miscellaneous Works, p. 287. Lange, author of the 
Leben Jesu, ought perhaps to be named along with the two in the text, as 
belonging to this school. 

42 Perhaps these two theologians ought to be regarded apart from the 
average of the members of the Mediation school, as being of a grander 
type. They approach the subject from a higher stand-point, and also are 
■more largely moulded by philosophy. On Rothe, see Note 40 (p. 43*7). 






280 LECTURE vn. 

cal problem which lies at the basis of Christianity ; the 
latter, moulded rather by the school of Sehleiermacher, 
has attempted the cosmological, which lies at. the basis 
of religion and providence. 

The work of Dorner on " the Person of Christ " 
formed an epoch in German theology, by its fulness of 
learning, its orthodoxy of tone, and its nnion of specu- 
lative powers with historic erudition. The Christian 
doctrine of the incarnation is, that God and man have 
been united in an historic person as the essential con- 
dition for effecting human salvation. If the doctrine 
be viewed on the speculative side, the problem is to 
show a priori that this historic union ought to exist ; if 
viewed on the historic, to prove that it has existed as a 
fact. The great aim of the Christology of the Hegelian 
system was to effect the former ; the aim of Strauss was 
to destroy the latter. Dorner strove to reconstruct the 
doctrine, by making the historical study of its progress 
the means of supplying the elements of information for 
doing so. He commences by an examination of other 
religions, 43 in order at once to show the existence in 
them of blind attempts to realise that truth which the 
incarnation supplied, and to prove the impossibility 
that the Christian doctrine can have been borrowed. 
from human sources, -as the critical and mythical inter- 
preters would assume. He discovers in all religions 
the desire to nnite man to God ; but shows 44 that the 
Christian doctrine cannot have been derived from the 
oriental, which humanised God ; nor from the Greek, 
which deified man ; nor from the Hebrew in its Pales- 
tinian form, which degraded the idea of the incarnate 
God into a temporal ifessiah ; nor in its Alexandrian 
form, which never reached, in its theory of the yloyo?, 
the idea of the distinction of person of the Son from the 
Father. Thus establishing the originality of the idea 
in Christianity, and exhibiting it as the fulfilment of 
the world's yearnings, he traces it in the teaching of 
the apostles, and of the apostolic age, 45 next as marking 

43 In the Einldhmg. 44 Id. 45 Vol. i. period i. eh. i. 






lecture vn. 2S1 

the different heretical sects, 45 which respectively lost 
sight of one of the two elements, till he finds the 
church's explicit statement of the doctrine in its ful- 
ness ; 47 and then pursues it onwards through the course 
of history to the present time. 48 Though the work is 
to an English mind difficult, through the air of specula- 
tion, which pervades it, and perhaps open to exception 
in some of its positions ; yet, viewed as a whole, it is a 
magnificent argument in favour of Christianity ; exhib- 
iting the incarnation as the satisfaction for the world's 
wants, as the original and independent treasure in 
Christianity ; and showing the process through which 
Providence in history has caused the doctrine to be 
evolved and preserved. 

The other great problem, the origin of things, and 
the relation of God to the world, which is at the basis 
of religion, as the incarnation is at the basis of Chris- 
tianity, ha& been less frequently handled. Originally 
discussed, like the latter, in controversy with the early 
unbelievers, it had been touched upon in the specula- 
tions of Averroes and Spinoza, in the materialism of 
French infidelity, and in the earlier systems of specula- 
tive philosophy in Germany itself. It was this problem 
which was attempted by Rothe. (40) Advancing be- 
yond this first question, he has considered the scheme of 
Providence in the development of religion, and the the- 
ory of the Christian church in relation to political so- 
ciety. It is unnecessary here to explain his system : 
his mind is too original to admit of comparison without 
injustice ; yet the speculations of our own Coleridge, 
who on philosophical principles makes the state to be 
the realisation of the church, will perhaps give some 
imperfect conception of the character of his attempts. 

This second school that we have been considering, 
though approximating extremely nearly to orthodoxy, 
and furnishing the works of most value in the modern 
theology, yet seeks to approach religion from the psy- 
chological or philosophical side. It speculates freely, 



Id. ch. ii. and iii. 41 Epoche, Abtb. 2. 48 Vol. ii. 



282 



LECTURE Vn. 



and believes revelation because it finds it to coincide 
with the discoveries of free thought. But there is a 
third tendency, which believes revelation without pro- 
fessing to understand it ; which rests on the revelation 
in scripture as an objective verity, and believes the 
Bible -on the ground of evidence, without questioning 
its material. 49 

The first germ of this reaction in favour of rigid 
orthodoxy was observable in the feeling aroused "by 
the theses of Harms, in 1817, already named, on occa- 
sion of the celebration of the tricentenary of the Refor- 
mation ; but it was quickened by the attempts, initiated 
by the Prussian king, between the years 1821 and 1830, 
to unite the Lutheran and Calvinistic branches of the 
Protestant church. 50 

The time seemed then to thoughtful men a fitting 
one, when doctrines were either regarded as unimpor- 
tant or superseded by the religious consciousness, to 
unite these two churches under the bond of a common 
nationality, and the practice of a common liturgy. But 
the old Lutheran spirit, which still survived in the re- 
tirement of country parishes, was aroused, ard some 
pastors underwent deprivation and persecution rather 
than submit to the union. 51 This new movement at 
first caught the spirit of pietism, jnst as had been the 
case with that of Schleiermacher ; but gradually aban- 
doned it for a dogmatic and churchlike aspect, as he 
for a scientific expression. Its aim was to return to 
the Lutheranism of the sixteenth century, and to rally 
round the confessions of faith of that period. Iieng- 

40 If the reader follows out the pedantic but useful mode before named, 
of arranging the actual schools of theology after the fashion of foreign 
assemblies, he will place in the right, the friends of the confessional theol- 
ogy ; in the centre, those of the mediation theology ; in the left, the old 
critical school of Dc Wette ; and in the extreme left, the school of Tubin- 
gen. The first has its chief seat in Prussia, and the third probably in 
Thuringia and central Germany. 

50 See Kahnis, p. 262, &c. ; Am. Saintes, part ii. ch. x ; Ease, § 453; 
Schwarz, book iii. ch. iii. 

51 The dissenters from the union were not recognised legally by the 
state till 18-15. (See the references given in the last note.) The principal 
of those who dissented were Kellner, Schcibel, and Huschke. 



LECTURE vn. 283 

stenberg* 2 at Berlin, and Haverniek, 53 are tlie names best 
known as representing this party at the period of which 
we speak. Their efforts were directed to criticism rather 
than to doctrine, to reconstruct the basis for Christianity 
in Judaism by defending the authenticity and credibility 
of the ancient scriptures. In doctrine and the canon, 
they reverted to the position of the Reformation. But 
the alarm ensuing upon the work of Strauss, in 1835, in- 
vested this movement with a more reactionary charac- 
ter ; and the journal 5 * which gave expression to Heng- 
stenberg's views, gradually assumed the character of an 
ecclesiastical censorship, frequently marked by defiance 
and severity, like the tone of Luther of old. 

The panic caused by the revolutions of 1848 gave 
increased stimulus, by adding a political reaction to the 
religious. The extreme rationalist party had favoured 
the Revolution, and the school of Sckleiermacher had 
supported the schemes for constitutional government. 
In the suppression of liberty which ensued for about 
ten years, the orthodox movement in theology united 
itself with the reaction in political. Absolute govern- 
ment was not merely a fact, but a doctrine. * The theo- 
logical reaction was no longer the spiritual aspiration 
of Germany seeking repose after doubt, but a political 
movement veiled under an ecclesiastical colour. The 
result has been, the creation of a Lutheran party far 
more extreme in its opinions than the one just de- 
scribed ; — the political leader of which in the Prussian 
parliament was the jurist Stahl ; 55 — intolerant towards 

62 Hengstenberg, bora in 1802; professor at Berlin. His works are 
well known. His work on Christology (1829), Introduction to the Penta- 
teuch (1831), Commentary on the Psalms (1842), and several others, are 
translated. • 

53 Haverniek, Professor at Konigsberg ; died a few years since. His 
chief works are, a Commentary on Daniel (1838); and an Introduction to 
the Old Testament, which is translated. 

54 The Evangalischc Kirchenzeitung, the organ of his opinions, was 
Pietist till about 183S ; after which it favoured the reaction; especially 
since the theological disputes of 1845 and the political revolution of 1848. 
See Hase, § 451 ; Schwarz, book i. 

65 Stahl, who died in 1861, was eminent for piety as well as learning. His 
views may be learned from an address, Ueber Christliche Toleranz, 1S55. 
The Kreuz Zeitung is the journal which has supported this political reaction. 



284 lecture vn. 

other churches, suspicious of any independent associa- 
tions for religions usefulness in its own, disowning piet- 
ism because of its imehurehlike character, and in its 
principles goiug hack "beyond the Eeformation, discard- 
ing the subjective inward principle, and reposing en 
the objective authority of the church. Taking a politi- 
cal view of religion, it does not so much ask what is 
truth, but what the church asserts to be true. Though 
not offending popular prejudices by the introduction 
of Romish doctrines or rites, it really reposes on the 
Itomish principle of a visible authoritative church with 
mystical powers, upholding a rigid sacramental theory 
and the doctrine of consubstantiation. Extending the 
sacramental efficacy to the ministerial office, and deny- 
ing communion between God and the individual soul 
independently of the church as the element of com- 
munication." Yet it contains many honoured names, 
and has produced many instructive works. The move- 
ment in English theology, which originated a genera- 
tion ago in the panic caused by the liberal acts of the 



The "Theology of the Confessions" (i. e. of Augsburg, &c.) is the name 
which is given "to the movement by its friends. See Kahnis, p. 311 seq. 
Much interesting information in reference to it, though occasionally ex- 
pressed in a rude manner, together with references to the German authors 
from which it is drawn, will be found in the North British Review, No. 
47, Feb. 1S5C, and British Quarterly Review, Xo. 46, April 1S56. The 
extracts there quoted are the authority for several of the statements here 
made. See also Schwarz, hi. 3; Hundeshagen, I)cr Deutsche Proicstani- 
ismus, £ 22. 

50 In enumerating a few names among those that belong to this l-cac- 
tionary party, it is fair to state that some of them have not taken open 
pat in the political aspects of it, and do not teach all that is described in 
the last few lines, which rather express the teaching of the more violent, 
and mark the tendencies to which the others only approximate. Some of 
the best known are, Ilarless, JJelitzch, Keil, as biblical investigate^; 
Kudelbach, Guericke, Schmid, Kurtz, and Kahnis, as historical ; and Klie- 
foth in practical doctrine. (Kahnis has however lately adopted free views 
in criticism. See Colani's Nouvelle Recur de la Theolocite, July 1S62.) 
Vilmar in Hesse Cassel, and Leo at Halle, belong to the most ultra section 
o\' the school. The universities where it predominates are named at p. 
27 7. Those however who dissent from the views of the theologians here 
described ought not to forget to render a tribute to the reverent piety and 
high motives of many of them. They arc men who know and love Christ, 
and are striving to lead men to love him. 



LECTURE VII. 285 

government which was introduced by the reform act, 57 
offers a parallel ; with the exception that the ecclesias- 
tical principles then advocated had always had sup- 
porters in the English church, whereas they were nearly 
new in the Lutheran. The Lutheran movement too, 
only proposes to go back to the Reformation, the Eng- 
lish ecclesiastical movement professed to go back to the 
early fathers. (41) 

While the church has thus attempted a renovation 
of itself in doctrine, the value of which some will dis- 
pute, all will allow thankfully that there has been a 
deep increase of spiritual life throughout the German 
churches. Religion indeed had never died ont ; but 
in the retirement of country districts^ 8 the flame of 
divine love still burned with unextinguished, glory. 
This spiritual fire has now spread, and expressed itself 
in acts of earnest life. Foreign missions have been 
promoted ; 59 an inner or home mission established for 
schools, and other religious agency; 00 and an annual 
ecclesiastical diet'' 1 constituted, for promoting co-opera- 
tion and ecclesiastical improvement.' a 

5T It is a remarkable circumstance that the Oxford movement in the 
church of England was at first an anticatholic movement. The Catholic 
Emancipation Bill and the liberality of the parliament after the Reform 
Bill created an alarm, which led to the study of the non-juring divines and 
Anglo-catholics who had asserted the rights of the church, and to the re- 
production of their opinions. Deeper causes were however at work ; 
among which was the wish to find a more solid groundwork for church 
belief: but the political circumstances contributed the stimulus, though 
they were not truly the cause. 

" The. names of Stilling and Oberlin have been already cited, r.s 
instances of devoted Christians who realised the truth and tried to spread 
it. A writer in the Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xxv. p. 132, attests 
from personal experience his knowledge of the existence of earnest faith in 
parishes at the time when the universities were nurseries of doubt. 

b0 The missions existed previously, having been commenced by the 
Moravians in the last century, and carried on by several detached mission- 
ary associations in the present. On the recent improvement in Germany, 
see articles in the North British Review, No. 31 for Nov. 1851, and No. 
40 for Feb. 1854. 

60 Die Innere Mission,, founded by Dr. Wichern. 

61 The Kirchentag arose out of the Kirchenbund, and met first at Wit- 
tenberg, in the church which contains the bones of Luther and Melancthon, 
in 1848, while Avar and revolution were raging around. 

tf2 In addition to those named in the text, mention ought to be made 



286 LECTURE YII. 

These three separate movements of the present age, 
even when incorrect, have contributed something to 
form a perfect theology. In the orthodox school we 
see the attempt to return to the Bible, as interpreted 
by the Reformation ; in the mediation school, as inter- 
preted by the religious consciousness ; in the critical 
school, as interpreted by historic and critical methods. 

We have now completed the history of the great 
movement in German theology, in its two elements, 
doctrinal and critical. Commencing in the first period, 
—in doctrine, with the disbelief of positive religion, 
replacing dogma by ethics ; and in criticism, supplying 
a rationalistic interpretation : in the second, it was im- 
proved on the doctrinal side by the separation of reli- 
gion and ethics ; and on the critical by a spiritual 
acknowledgment of the literary characteristics and 
psychological peculiarities of revelation : in the third, 
by a total reconstruction of both inquiries, in a more 
historic and orthodox spirit ; and by the creation of a 
traditionalist position in reference to each. The solu- 
tion of the problem how to reconcile faith and reason, 
was attempted in the first by obliterating faith ; in the 
second by uniting them ; in the third by separating 
them. The whole movement stands remarkable, not 
only as being the most singular instance in history, 
where the action of free thought can be watched in its 
intellectual stages, disconnected in a great degree from 
emotional causes, and where the effort was exercised 
by the friends of religion, not by foes ; but also in the 
circumstance that though referable to the influence of 
similar intellectual causes as former epochs of free 

of the association of the "Friends of Light," founded by Uhlich, which 
represents the individual principle like the Quakers, and has resulted in 
forming some free congregations in Konigsberg and Magdeburg. (Consult 
Die Deutsche Theologies p. 26; Hase's Church History, § 456.) The 
movement was accused of rationalism by its opponents. Also the Gustavus 
Adolphus Association, begun in 1832 for the relief of all classes of protest 
ants, was one of the first means of promoting Christian union, and in' 
directly produced the Kirchentag. An account of these two last associa- 
tions may be found in a pamphlet (1849) by C. II. Cottrell, Religious 
Movements of Germany in the Nineteenth Century. Kahnis notices tho 
great facts of this revival, but with a slight sneer (p. 276, &c). 



LECTURE VII. 2S7 

thought, it is characterised by wholly different forms 
of them. 

We have found, on nearer inspection, as might be 
anticipated in an y great movement of mind, that instead 
of being without purpose, and a mere heap of ruins, 
there was a plan and method in it. It is a history 
which offers much cause for sorrow and much for joy. 
Though, as has been before remarked, a period of har- 
rowing doubt in the life of an individual or a nation is 
a melancholy subject for consideration, yet when it is 
not induced by immorality, but produced, as in this 
instance, by the operation of regular causes, and is the 
result of the attractiveness of new modes of inquiry 
which invited application to the criticism of old truths, 
to be accepted or rejected after being fully tested; there 
is something to relieve the dreariness of the prospect. 
And when we look to the result, there is abundant cause 
for thankfulness. The agitation of free thought has 
produced permanent contributions to theology. Ex- 
travagant and shocking as some of the inquiries have 
been, and injurious in a pastoral point of view, being 
the utterance of men who had made shipwreck of 
faith; yet. in a scientific, hardly one has been wholly 
lost, and few could be spared in building up the temple 
of truth. In criticism, in exegesis, in doctrine, in his- 
tory alike, how much more is known than before the 
movement commenced : and what light has been thrown 
on that which is the very foundation problem, the just 
limits of inquiry in religion. Each earnest writer has 
contributed some fragment of information. At each 
point error was met by an apologetic literature, rival- 
ling it in learning and depth ; reason was conquered 
by reason ; and though we cannot help rejoicing that 
we are able to reap the results of the experience, with- 
out undergoing the peril of acquiring it, yet we must 
acknowledge that the free and full discussion has in 
the end resulted in truth : the very error has stimu- 
lated discovery. So far from being a warning against 
having confidence in the exercise of inquiry, it is an 
unanswerable ground for reposing confidence in it. 



288 LECTURE VII. 

Christianity is not a religion that need shrink from 
investigation. Christians need not tremble at every 
onset. Our religion is vital, because true ; and we 
may place trust in the providence of God in history, 
which overrules human errors and struggles for the 
permanent good of men ; and, extricating the human 
race from the follies of particular individuals, makes 
the antagonism of free discussion the means to conserve 
or to promote intellectual truth. 

In concluding this sketch however it is proper to 
make a few remarks, as hints to theological students, 
in reference to the study of works of German the- 
ology. Many such works are translated, and many 
more exist in the original, which are of the highest 
value, 63 and are likely to be read, and indeed may justly 
be read, by all students of large cultivation. The works 
of Schleiermacher or Dorner in doctrine, of De Wette 
or Ewald in criticism, of Neander or Baur in history, 
are works of power as w T ell as erudition, and contain 
a treasure-house of information and suggestion for those 
who know how to use them wisely, and separate the 
precious from the untrue. While I have endeavoured 
to present a fair history of the whole movement, I should 
feel inexpressible pain if these remarks were the means 
of leading unwary students to plunge unguardedly into 
the study of many parts of it. Its -original connexion 
with the deist and ethical points of view, and the con- 
stant sense of living in an atmosphere of controversy, 
have impressed even some of the more orthodox writers 
with a few peculiarities, of which a student ought to 
be made aware :— for example, with a slight tendency 
'to a kind of Christian pantheism ; a disposition to re- 
duce miracle to a minimum; and in the department 
of Christian doctrine to consider Christ's life as more 
important than his death, and to regard the atonement 
as an effect of the incarnation, instead of the incarna- 
tion being the means to the atonement. 

63 It is enough to mention Schleiermacher's Glausbenslehre, and the 
works of Ewald ; e. g. the prefaces to the poetical and prophetical books, 
and his work, the Geschichte des Hcbr. Volkes. 



LECTURE VII. 289 

If then a young student would avoid a chaos of be- 
lief, and pursue a healthy study of the German writers, 
there are two conditions which he ought to observe. 
First, care should be taken to understand the precise 
school of thought which his author represents, in order 
to be able to allow for the possibility of prepossession 
in him; — a remark true in reference to all literature, 
but especially important in that which marks a particu- 
lar phase of controversy. (42) Secondly, a student's 
duty to English society, and to the church of which he 
is a member— as also, I humbly venture to think, to his 
own soul — requires that he shall first listen thought- 
fully to the vernacular theology of England. Let him 
learn the chief affirmative verities of the Christian faith 
before meddling with the negative side. Let him mas- 
ter the grand thoughts or solid erudition of Hooker and 
Pearson ; of Bull, and Bingham, and Waterland ; of 
Butler and Paley ; — the seven most valuable writers 
probably in the English church ; — and then reconsider 
his opinions by the light of foreign literature. Each 
one of us is on his intellectual as well as moral trial. 
None whom duty calls need be afraid to encounter it 
in God's strength, and with prayer to Christ for light 
and truth and love. 

It remains to mark the influence produced by Ger- 
man theology on free thought in other countries. (13) 

In the remainder of this lecture we shall carry on 
the history of free thought in France, from the point 
at which we left it 64 down to the present time. "We shall 
find that the open attacks on Christianity- of former 
times have ceased. There, as elsewhere, the present 
century has been constructive of belief in spiritual 
realities, not destructive ; but the reconstruction has 
in some cases been so connected with an abnegation 
of revelation, that it merits some notice in a history of 
free thought. 

The speculative thought in France during the pres- 
ent century has manifested itself chiefly under four 

64 In Lecture V. (p. 194.) 

13 






290 LECTUEE VII. 

forms : 66 (1) a sensational school, called in tli£ early 
part of the century Ideology, in the latter Positivism : 
(2) a theological school, which has attempted to re-estab- 
lish a ground for reposing on dogmatic authority : (3) 
a social philosophy, which' has directed itself to the 
study of society and labour : and (4) the eclectic philoso- 
phy, created by German thought, which has sought to 
reconstruct truth on the basis of psychology. The 
chronological sequence of these schools connects itself 
with the political sequence of events, and has altered 
with their change. We must trace them briefly in 
succession, in order to understand their religious influ- 
ence and tendencies. The first has tended directly to 
atheism, the second to superstition, the two last indi- 
rectly to pantheism. 

When treating of Yolney in a former lecture, we 
noticed the philosophy which took its rise amid the 
ruins caused by the revolution. Christianity was re- 
placed by materialism, theism by atheism, ethics by 
selfishness. The philosophy of Cabanis, of Yolney, and 
of De Tracy, Ge was founded so entirely on a physical 
view of human nature, that it could hardly aid in any 
way in instilling nobler conceptions. Society grew up 
without the belief of God or immortality ; but in this 
very poverty the system met its downfall. The deep 
yearnings of the human heart craved satisfaction. The 
inextinguishable poetry of the soul yearned for the 
spiritual ; the devotional instincts of human nature 
caught the first notes of that heavenly melody to which 
they were naturally fitted to be attuned. 

Literature rather than religion was the source from 
which the mind of France began to imbibe the deep 
and spi ritual conceptions which obliterated the mate? 

65 See Damiron, Essai sur VHistoire de. la Philosophic en France an 
19me siecle, 1828; and Nettement's Hist, de la Litt. Franc, sous la Re- 
storation, 1853, and Hist, de la Litt. Franc, sous le Gouvernement de 
Juillet, especially b. v, vi, vii, xi ; and a review of Nettement in the 
British Quarterly Review, No. 3*7 ; also II. J. Rose's Christian Advocate's 
Publication for 1832. 

06 Sec Morell's Hist, of Philosophy, i. 543-72, and Damiron, pp. . 
(1-105), '. 



LECTURE VII. 



291 



rialism of the revolution. The spiritual tone of such a 
writer as Chateaubriand, 57 similar to that of the Roman- 
tic literature of Germany, awakened in France early 
in the century the conceptions of a world of spirit, of 
chivalrous honour, of immortal hope, of divine Provi- 
dence ; and led mankind to feel that there was some- 
thing in them nobler than mere material organism ; 
even a spirit that yearned for the world invisible. 
Chateaubriand showed, 06 in answer to the school of 
Voltaire, that Christianity was not merely suited to a 
rude age, but was the friend of art, of intellect, of im- 
provement. The church as yet possessed only little 
influence. Beginning to revive under the fostering 
influence of Napoleon, who saw clearly the necessity 
of cultivating religion, its moral usefulness was lessened 
by falling under the suspicion of opposing the public 
liberty, when patronised by the government after the 
re-establishment of the monarchy. . 

The nobler conceptions just described, whether they 
arose from literature or from religion, gradually pene- 
trated into the minds of thoughtful men ; and, the 
ground being thus prepared, several rival systems of 
thought gradually sprang up in the fifteen years (1815- 
1830). of the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. Ac- 
cordingly, when the revolution of 1830 gave freedom 
to France, there was a universal activity of mind, and 
free thought assumed a bolder attitude ; sceptical, if 
compared with the Christian standard, but embodying 
deep moral convictions, if compared with the unbelief of 
the last century. Among the definite schemes of phi- 
losophy, theoretical or practical, which were proposed 
for acceptance, the first which we shall notice was 
Socialism. 69 

67 Chateaubriand (1768-1848) wrote his Gtnie du Clirisiianisrne in 
1802. See Nettement, first work, quoted above, vol. i. b. x. ; and, second 
work, vol. ii. p. 330 ; and the criticism by Villemain, La Tribune Modernc, 
eh. v. ; and Sainte-Beuve's Portraits, vol. x. 

68 In his Ghlie du Christianisme. 

6U The sources for understanding the systems of Socialism, besides the. 
works of its founders, are Alfred Sudre's Histoire et Refutation du Com- 
munisme, 1850, (especially ch. xvi-xx,) which obtained the Monthyon 



292 



LECTUKE VII. 



It originated with St. Simon. 70 The stirring events 
of the great revolutionary era, together with the social 
philosophy of Rousseau which preceded it, had directed 
attention to the philosophy of social life. St. Simon 
had lived through this period, and early in the present 
century devoted himself to the study of schemes of social 
reform ; and shortly before his death in 1825, announced 
his ideas as a new religion, a new Christianity. In the 
ferment which followed the revolution of 1830, the opin- 
ions of this dreamer became suddenly popular, and, 
enlisting around them some distinguished minds, forced 
themselves on the attention of the public during the two 
following years ; and as the political schemes which 
resulted from them have left their mark on the theo- 
logical literature of the time, they merit some attention. 

St. Simonism offered itself as a system of religion, 
of philosophy, and of government, which should be the 
perfect cure of all the evils which existed. The source 
of these evils St. Simon conceived to be the want 
of social unity ; individualism, selfishness, to be the 
cause of virtual anarchy. He considered that philoso- 
phy and religion had striven in vain to remedy the 
evil, because they had not made the spiritual to bear 
upon the material interests of mankind. This, which 
was the true remedy, he proposed to discover historic- 
ally. 

Borrowing the thought of the German philosophers, 
he sought it in the elements which are to operate on hu- 
man nature in the progress of its development. The mode 
of development by which society advances to perfection 
he found in a supposed law, that society shows two 
great epochs, which in long cycles alternate, — the or- 

prize, and gives a history of communism in all ages ; also Netteme'nt, 
second work, ii. b. vii. ; MorelPs Hist, of Philosophy, ch. vii. § 2 ; an 
article in the Quarterly Review, No. 90, July 1831 ; and in the Westminster 
Review, 1832; and two very valuable articles in the North British Review, 
No. 18, May 18-1S, and No. 20, Feb. 1840. Those who are aware how 
much Socialism has influenced French philosophy and literature, as well as 
politics, will see that it is at once the index of certain forms of religious 
thought and the cause of subsequent ones, and will pardon the space be- 
stowed in the text upon these visionarv schools. 
70 17G0-1825. See Morcll, as above. 






LECTURE VII. 293 

ganic and the critical ; the former, where the individual 
is obedient to the purpose of the society ; the second, 
where the individual rises against it. lie found two 
instances of them in the ancient and modern world 
respectively, viz. in the ancient pagan period and its 
disruption ; and again in the Catholic centralization 
of the middle ages, and the disorganization which suc- 
ceeded from the time of the Reformation to the French 
revolution. He considered himself to be raised up to 
announce the dawn of the third organic period, the 
world's millennium, a new epoch, and a new religion. 
It was to be the realisation of the fraternity, which the 
great moral teachers of the w T orld had promised and 
prepared. This religion consisted in raising the indus- 
trial classes, by a scheme which it is irrelevant to our 
purpose to explain. 

Contemporaneously with this socialist system was 
that of Fourier^ 71 which, though presented more as a 
scheme of social amelioration, and less as a religion, 
implied the same abnegation of Christianity. Starting 
from an avowedly pantheistic view of philosophy, the 
author of it gradually passed through the sciences, until 
he arrived at man, and reached the study of human 
history and constitutions. Exaggerating the good ele- 
ments of human nature, and ignoring the necessity for 
any other than a social power to amend the heart, he 
traced the source of evil to social competition, and pro- 
posed to rearrange society on the principle of substitu- 
ting co-partnership for competition. 72 The two ideas 
accordingly which these speculations introduced were ; 
— first, that European society was approaching a crisis, 
the peculiarity.of which, as distinct from former ones, 
would be, that it would be an industrial revolution ; 
and the industrial mind would obtain the mastery of 
the administration ; and, secondly, that the accompani- 

71 Fourier, 1*768-1818. See the same sources for information, and 
Nottcment's second work, ii. SO. One of the chief Fourierists. was Con^- 
siderant. 

12 It was a system. in fact which has been tried in the mode of working 
the Cornish mines. 



294: LECTTJKE VII. 

ment would be a new organization of industry on the 
principle of co-operation. We cannot track these schools 
into their ramifications' 3 and their indirect expression 
in lighter literature, 74 nor notice the levelling system 
of communism or co-operative socialism which com- 
pleted the cycle ; 75 but it will be remembered, that 
when the revolution of 1848 ensued, the schemes for 
organization of labour were one of its peculiarities ; 
the social republic of those who regarded the democ- 
racy as a means, mixed with the political republicans, 
who thought it to be an end. 

It will be noticed that the schemes of these socialist 
philosophers, though analogous as political theories, in 
proposing organization of labour and consequent mo- 
nopoly, to the English socialism of Owen before named,, 
are unlike it in philosophical origin and religious ten- 
dency. In philosophical origin his system rests on 
sensation, theirs on feeling ; his degrades human nature, 
theirs elevates it. His denounces priestcraft as impos- 
ture, and religion as obsolete ; theirs, though identify- 
ing religion and industry, regards religion as the highest 

78 The St. Simonians separated about 1831 into two parties; one led 
by Bazard, showing a logical tendency, and including Leyroux ; and the 
other led by Enfantin at Menilmontant, showing an emotional, among 
whose adherents was Michel Chevalier. The source of dispute was the 
emancipation of the working classes and of woman ; Enfantin going beyond 
the other school in reference to these points. In 1832 the government 
interfered, and dispersed his supporters. On the relation of French jour- 
nalism to the political movements, see two articles in the British Quarterly 
Review, vols. iii. and ix. 

14 The novels of such writers as George Sand, Victor Hugo, &c. give 
expression to these aspirations for social improvement, and the disposition to 
attribute all evil to social disarrangement. 

75 The systems of St. Simon and Fourier did not demand the abrogation 
of social inequality between man and man. Both would revolutionise the 
present state of things ; but the one would replace it by a graduated scale 
of functionaries, the other by a more democratic and less federal system of 
corporations. But communism is founded on the idea of entire social 
equality as regards the material advantages of life. The old schemes of 
Baboeuf and the first French revolution hardly existed in 1848, but were 
replaced by two forms of communism; the theoretic or "Icarian"of 
Cabet, and the practical of Louis Blanc. On these systems, with that of 
Froudhon, see the sources before described, especially Sudre and the North 
British Review, No. 20, where this new phase is well described. Also 
Base's Church History, § 493. 



lecttjee vn. 295 

expression of humanity, the great goal to which nature 
is developing : his leads to deism or atheism, theirs to 
pantheism. Yet theirs is not less hurtful, for they reject 
with contempt the dogmatic teaching of revelation, 
though they appropriate the Christian virtues ; like 
the German philosophy they resolve the Deity into a 
law, according to which the universe evolves. 

One of the minds however which was trained in the 
school of St. Simon, viz. Comte, 70 has developed a sys- 
tem known by the name of Positivism, which in its 
effects is not merely thus negative, but amounts to posi- 
tive and dogmatic unbelief. He showed traces of the 
school from which he sprang, both in considering poli- 
tics to be the highest science, in regarding humanity 
as a progress, and in adducing individualism as the 
sole cause of social evil and anarchy. He commenced 
similarly by taking an estimate of the present state of 
knowledge, and seizing the law which presides over the 
progress of knowledge. 77 This law he stated as consist- 
ing of three stages, through which each science passes 
as it grows to perfection ; the first, the theological or 
imaginative stage, wherein the mind inquires into final 
causes, and refers phenomena to special providence ; 
the second, the metaphysical, wherein the idea of super- 
natural or personal causes being discarded, it seeks for 
abstract essences ; the third, the positive, wherein it 
rests content with generalized facts, aud does not ask 
for causes. 78 The first in its religious phase is theistic ; 
the second pantheistic ; the third atheistic. The perfec- 
tion of science consists in reaching the third stage, 
wherein the knowledge is strictly generalized from 
sensation. Having thus seized the law which presides 

76 Comte's chief work, the Philosophic Positive, has been well trans- 
lated in an abridged form by Miss Martineau, 1853. In reference to him 
see Morell, History of Philosophy, i. 577, &c. and important criticisms on 
his system in the following reviews, Revue cles Deux Mondes, by E. Saisset, 
1850, vol. iii; North British Review, No. 30, Aug. 1851; No. 41, May 
1854 ; British Quarterly Review, No. 38, April 1854. Comte's later reli- 
gious views are given in the Catechisme Positiviste, 1852, and the Culte 
Systhnatique de VHumanite ou Calendrier Positiviste (1853). 

77 Introduction, ch. i. (English translation.) 
7S Id. ch. ii. and books i-v. 



296 lectuee vn. 

over intellectual development, and settled tlie limits of 
the human reason to be confined to' phenomena, agree- 
ing in this respect with the ideologists, and opposed to 
Cousin, he next offered a classification of the sciences," 
commencing with the simplest, and showing that, as 
the mind passes from the simple to the complex, the 
methods of investigation multiply ; accompanying his 
account by a delineation of the steps in each case by 
which science attains perfection ; and thus gradually 
ascending to the science of man 79 and society, to which 
the preliminary investigation had been the preface, 
designed to prepare the way for showing how the sci- 
ence of society may be similarly brought into the posi- 
tive stage. 

Such is the scheme of Comte. The very breadth 
of it possesses an attraction ; and if viewed merely as 
a logic of the sciences, it may justly command attc: - 
tion. Many of the analyses which he supplies of the 
methods and history of science are masterly ; and his 
generalisations, even when hasty, are fertile in sugges- 
tion. He was a most original and powerful thinker ; 
scientific rather than artistic. But his philosophy, 
viewed as a whole, is a grand system of materialism 
which is silent about God, spirit, personal immortal- 
ity ; diametrically opposed to Christianity, in that it 
makes man's social duty higher than his individual, 
science the only revelation, demonstration the only 
authority, nature's laws the only providence, and obe- 
dience to them the only piety ; and destroys Christianity 
by destroying the possibility of its proof. In later life 
this distinguished man, feeling the unutterable yearnings 
of the religious sentiment, and the necessity that his 
philosophy should afford satisfaction to them, invented 
the system of religion developed in his catechism f° in 
which, in a manner analogous to that employed by 
Feuerbach or St. Simon, he regarded the collective 
humanity as the true God, the proper object of worship 
and reverence ; and marked out a church and a cult, 

79 Book vi. b0 See note on the subject in Lecture VIII. 



LECTURE VII. 297 

the caricature of the Catholic church, in which the 
world's heroes should receive canonization. The proba- 
bility of mental derangement palliates the absurdity 
of this system in the originator, but throws the burden 
of responsibility from the master upon those who are 
insane enough to adopt it. 

• We have traced two of the schools which flourished 
in the second quarter of this century. Another remains, 
which has incurred from opponents the charge of pan- 
theism, viz. the idealist school, commonly called the 
Eclectic ; (44) which was especially dominant in France, 
and in the university of Paris, during the rule of the 
Orleans dynasty. Viewed as a philosophy it is a very 
noble one. Implying, as its name denotes, an attempt 
to reap the harvest of the industry of all preceding 
schools of philosophy, it was the chief means of restor- 
ing intellectual and spiritual belief to France, and of 
creating the great movement of historical study which 
marks that period of French literature. Commencing 
with a reaction against the materialist and sensational- 
ist school, it sought, by imitating the mode by which 
Reid had refuted the philosophical scepticism of Hume, 
to find a method for restoring belief in spiritual reali- 
ties ; and afterwards, when its chief leader Cousin 81 
had been exiled to Germany, he brought back an ac- 
quaintance with the successive speculative schools which 
existed there. 

The results of the preceding efforts are expressed in 
him-. His system consisted in a psychological analysis 
of the human consciousness, which led him to believe, 
that- spiritual truth is revealed to the reason, or intui- 
tional and impersonal power, apart from the limitations 
of sense, or of the ordinary critical faculties; that the 
true, the beautiful, and the good, are perceived by it 
in their absolute, unlimited essence ; and that the reve- 
lation of the infinite is the basis of all intellectual truth, 
of all moral obligation, and offers the clue to the criti- 
cism of religion, the solution of the problems of history, 

61 On Cousin, see Morell's History of Philosophy, ii. 478 seq. 



298 • LECTURE VII. 

and the construction of a philosophy of the universe. 
Its chief effect on literature, the permanent contribution 
which it lias made to human improvement, is to encour- 
age the historic study of every branch of phenomena, 
and especially to exemplify it in the history of thought. 
Asserting that human society is a gradual progress of 
development and of improvement, it regards every age as 
manifesting some phase of truth, or of error, and con- 
tributing its portion of knowledge to the student. Hu- 
manity is regarded as a divine revelation : its social and 
intellectual changes as manifestations of the Eternal. 

From this account, brief though it be, the relation 
will be evident which such a philosophy and the his- 
toric method of eclectic discovery w T ould have towards 
religion. 

As a system of psychology it is potent, as a means 
of reasserting the dignity of human nature against the 
material and selfish ethics of a preceding age, and of 
reconstructing the basis of ethics and natural religion : 
but as an ontology, it is in danger of unconscious pan- 
theism ; of identifying God with the universe, and re- 
garding Him merely as a name to describe a process, 
instead of a person. As a philosophy of humanity, it 
identifies the natural revelation in history with the super- 
natural ; finds in the psychological faculty of intuition, 
not merely the basis for, but the explanation of, the phe- 
nomenon of inspiration ; 8 * and in its view of religion is 
essentially antidogmatic, regarding religion as imper- 
fect and progressive ; the idea universal, the symbol 
transient ; and allows the psychological truthfulness 
of all creeds ; and regards Christianity as only the most 
refined species of them, as one of the transient forms 
that the religious sentiment has adopted, and as des- 
tined to give place to philosophy ; beneficial to human- 
ity, but not constituting it. 

This philosophy therefore, though containing so 
many noble elements, ended in the view which we 



02 Mr. Morcll, who was formerly a disciple of this school, has brought 
out this thought in his work on the Philosophy of Religion, 1849, ch. vi. 






LECTURE VII. 299 

have already seen to exist in the Gnostic and German 
rationalism, that Christianity was not to be final, the 
one solitary and final religions utterance of God to 
man. 83 

The three schools illustrate the principal tendencies 
in which unbelief manifested itself in France previous 
to the establishment of the empire ; 84 and show clearly 
the intimate relation of particular kinds of sceptical 
views to particular systems of metaphysical philosophy. 65 

In the latter years of Napoleon I. the struggle 
first commenced between the Voltairian party and the 
church ; a middle course being taken by the eclectics. 
The constitutional tendency of this last school gave 

83 Daring the reign of Louis Philippe an attack was made on the uni- 
versity of Paris by the Jesuits, on the ground that the views taught there 
were pantheistic. The same view was adopted in an article in Eraser's 
Magazine, No. 170, Feb. 1844, which is valuable in giving quotations of 
passages which indicate the tendency of this philosophy, though the writer 
fails to appreciate the value of it as a reaction against the old Voltairism. 
The same charge is expressed in the sketch which H. L. C. Maret. gives of 
the philosophy of the nineteenth century (in Essai sur le Pantheisme, 
1845). See also Nettement's second work, vol. i. book vi; Saisset, Revue 
des Deux Mondes, 1850, vol. hi ; and Damiron's Essai, pp. 105-197. 

bi It has not been thought necessary to name Salvador the Jew, author 
of Hist, des Institutions de Moses, 1828 ; Jesus Christ et sa Doctrine, lSo'.» ; 
Paris, Rome, et Jerusalem. His writings were criticised by Mr. H. J. 
Pose's Christian Advocate's Publication, 1831, and have been lately re- 
viewed by the Semitic scholar A. Franck, in a series of papers in the Jour- 
nal des Dcbats, Jan. 24, Feb. 12, May 29, June 4 and 6, 1862; and by 
Penan in the Etudes de VHist. Relig. p. 189, &c. Salvador's view is both 
Jewish and sceptical. Magnifying the Jewish system, he regards Clmstian- 
ity as an offshoot of it, imperfect in its kind ; and looks to the spirit of 
Judaism as the future hope for the world. He professes a creed which is 
called by Franck Infinilheism. Whatever in his opposition to Christianity 
is not derived from the eclectic school is the result of his Jewish prejudices. 

85 No mention has been made of several aggressive writers who publish 
in the French language, mostly in Belgium, works on infidelity resembling 
in tone those of the last century, such as Volney. There are two such 
works by P. Larroque, viz. a destructive one, Examcn Critique des Doc- 
trines de la Religion Chrctienne, first, as they are stated in the dogmas of 
the church, and secondly, in the scriptures; in which he makes a collection 
of difficulties in the Bible, book by book : and another work, constructive 
in tone, Renovation Religicuse, 1860. A work of similar intention by P. 
Penand, Christianisme et Paganisme, identite de lews origines ou nouvclle 
symbolique, 1861, is a kind of reproduction of Dupuis and Volney, modified 
by Feuerbach. In the preface to the last-named work, the writer refers to 
works by Eenen and Proudhon, similarly directed against Christianity. 



300 



LECTURE VII. 



tliem the moral victory during the restoration, over 
the democratic tendency of the one and the reactionist 
of the other. After the revolution of 1830, the socialist 
struggle was superadded ; which, when mixed with the 
old ideology, produced Positivism. 

The catholic church had sought to restore faith in 
Christianity, partly by the establishment of Confe- 
rences™ lectures to reply to the systems now described ; 
and partly by trying to satisfy the reason by establish- 
ing a rival philosophy, and stating philosophically the 
grounds of faith. (45) This philosophy, though noble 
in its aim, and taught by many pious minds, is vision- 
ary. It was based on the principle first evolved by 
Huet ; the weakness of human reason, and the sup- 
posed necessity of submission to authority. In De 
Maistre, its founder, who carried out in philosophy 
what Chateaubriand did in literature, it was the sug- 
gestion of an abject submission to the papacy, as the 
living authority on earth ; accompanied by a sceptical 
disbelief of the value of inductive science. It has ex- 
pressed itself in different forms ; but in all it has been 
an attempt to find a solution for difficulties by means 
of religion instead of philosophy ; an attempt analogous 
to that in other lands, not merely to restrain the human 
reason in matters of religion, but to inculcate distrust 
of it ; falling into the very error which Plato made his 
master describe, of those who, baffled in the search for 
truth, blame not their own unskilfulncss, but reason 
itself; and pass the rest of their lives in contempt of 
it ; and thus arc deprived of the knowledge that they 
seek. 

e6 The Conferences originated with Frayssinous in a kind of public 
catechising -about 1802. Being changed into sermons in 1807, they were 
transferred from the Carmes to St. Sulpice, but closed by the government 
in 1809. They were resumed in 1815, and were transferred about 1830, 
through Ozanam's intercession with the archbishop of Paris, De Quelen, to 
Notre Dame ; where Lacordaire opened his course in 1836. He, Ravignan, 
and Felix, respectively made themselves distinguished. A. Pontmartin 
has pointed out the adaptation of each teacher to the phase of public 
thought. (Pere Felix, 186*1, pp. 26-32, quoted in the Christian Remem- 
brancer, Jan. 1862). These particulars are partly taken from Nettement's 
works above cited. 



LECTURE VII. 301 

The history of thought in France, thus studied, ex- 
hibits a general resemblance to that of Germany in its 
forms and tendency. In both alike there has been a 
contest, between the school which seeks to absorb 
Christianity in philosophy, and that which extinguishes 
philosophy by Christianity. There is an absence indeed 
in France of the spiritual return to a living Christian 
faith, the union of science and piety, which is observ- 
able in the latter country. But within the sphere of 
natural religion, in reference to the belief in a spiritual 
world, an advance is perceptible, if the present condi- 
tion of France be measured against that which was ob- 
servable at the period when the philosophic unbelief 
of the last century predominated. 

Since the re-establishment of the empire, some of 
the forms of philosophy which have been described 
have almost disappeared. The socialist philosophy 
has become extinct as a direct movement ; the eclectic 
school has gradually passed from philosophy to litera- 
ture ; and the chief tendencies, so far as mere material- 
ism does not, as in most reactions, extinguish thought, 
are toward a modification of eclecticism on the one 
hand, and to ultramontism on the other. 87 

The difference of this new eclecticism from the 
former kind seen in Cousin, lies in the fact that while 
that was chiefly derived from Schelling's philosophy, 
this is an offshoot from Hegel. The one considered 
that the mind, by its intuitions, can find absolute truth, 
and by the light of these absolute ideas can criticise 
history, and prejudge the end toward which society is 
moving. This denies the possibility of attaining abso- 
lute truth. All being is a state of flux : all knowledge 
is relative to its age. Philosophy expires in historical 
criticism ; in the history of the soul of man under its 
various manifestations. It rests in what is ; it judges 
only from fact. The absolute is displaced by the rela- 

87 The church during the Bourbon restoration was more Gallican than 
Ultramontane. See Nettement's first work, t. ii. book vii. For a survey 
of French literature during the present reign, see Esmond's Etudes da 
second Empire. 



302 lecture vn. 

tive ; being by becoming. 68 Though, not positivism in 
its aspects, this system is so in its scientific results/ 9 

The unbelief is critical, not aggressive. The grand 
idea of an historical progress, of tracing- especially the 
historic growth of ideas, of culture, of the great unfold- 
ing of humanity, presides over religious speculations, 
and lends its fascinating power and its danger. The 
necessity is recognised for solving the nature of the 
religious consciousness, and satisfying its wants ; but 
the remedy is sought in other means than in Christian- 
ity. While this is the condition of the philosophy 
just described, positivism, so far as it prevails, is wholly 
antichristian, and regards religion as the product of an 
unscientific age, for which a belief in nature's laws and 
science is a sufficient substitute. Christianity, though 
the ripest of religious forms, is only symbolical of a 
higher truth towards which humanity is tending. 

We may select the name of a writer who stands 
pre-eminent in critical investigations connected with 
religion, as the best representative of the tone assumed 
in reference to the Christian faith by the most highly 
educated younger spirits of the French nation, of whose 
literature he is one of the brightest living ornaments, — 
Ernest Renan. 90 Exhibiting a mind of the rarest deli- 
cacy, and bearing traces of the collective cultivation 

P8 This idea is well expressed in the passages quoted in Note 9. 

8U One of the modern young French writers most distinguished for 
power of analysis, is II. Taine, who deserves mention in connexion with 
the tendency which is in a different manner represented by Renan. Taine's 
literary character was sketched, but hot with the praise which he deserves, 
in the Westminster Review, July 1861; and also with a special reference 
to his religious opinions in Schcrer, Melanges, ch. xi. He was supposed 
to be a positivist, but now declares himself to favour Spinoza. 

su E. Renan, born 182;>. His chief works are, Histoire Genhalc ct 
Systemes Compares des Langues Semitigues, 1845; De VOrigine du Lan- 
gage, 1849 ; Avcrroes, 1851 ; Job, 1859 ; Cantiquc <Ics Cantiqucs, 1860; and 
Essays collected, viz. Essais de Critique et de Morale, 1859 ; and especially 
Etudes de VHistoire Religicusc, 1859, which contains a remarkable pre- 
face on the office of modern criticism. A true criticism on the last two 
works may be seen in Blackwood's Magazine, Nov. 1861, used in these 
remarks; and another by Schercr, Melanges de la Critique Religicusc, ch. 
xv. He is now writing on Les Origines du Christianisme. See Eraser's 
Magazine, October 1862. 



LE6TUEE VII. 303 

which arises from detailed acquaintance with most 
varied branches of human culture, he has brought his 
vast acquaintance with the Semitic tongues to bear on 
the historical criticism of portions of the Hebrew litera- 
ture ; and has sketched with the hand of a master the 
great passages in the history of religion, — the symbol- 
ism of mythology ; the monotheistic systems, Jewish, 
Christian, and .Mahometan ; the four chief phases of 
Christianity, the Catholic, the Protestant, the Socinian, 
the rationalist ; yl and has speculated on the future re- 
ligious tendencies of the age, in essays, which those 
who feel most deeply pained with the views presented 
must acknowledge to be marked by rare power and 
freshness. Possessing a delicate appreciation of the 
past, and a cheerful confidence in the future ; loving 
the advance of the knowledge of physical nature, yet 
protesting against the tendency to materialism ; dread- 
ing the democracy of opinion, which threatens to sup- 
press independence of inquiry by a power analogous to 
centralization in the state ; the artist no less than the 
critic, imaginative as well as reflective, he may be 
studied as in all respects the contrast to the French 
philosopher of the last century, and as the type of the 
cultivated minds on whom Christianity has made its 
impression. His view of philosophy is the one recently 
explained : his view of religion and of Christianity, so 
far as we can gather it indirectly from his criticisms, 
seems to mark a belief in the religious sentiment as a 
subjective feeling, rather than in the reality of its ex- 
ternal object of worship. Its objective side seems to 
him to be a symbolism, and Christian dogma to be an 
obsolete form of religious philosophy ; inspiration a 
form of natural consciousness ; and even its highest 
expression to be but the poetry, the art, of the imagin- 

91 This will be seen to be the enumeration of the essays in the Etudes 
de PHistoire Belief. The essay on the future prospects of Christian churches 
alluded to is in the Revue des Deux Mondes for Oct. 15, 1860, where Renan 
examines the prospects of the centralised system of papacy, of the national 
system of the English and Russian churches, and of the individual system 
of free churches ; and argues .that the tendency of society is to adopt the 
latter, both in freedom of creed and of constitution. 



304 LECTUBE VII. 

ative faculties. There is audible at times an undertone 
of despondency, as the sigh .of one. who has searched 
for truth and not found it ; 92 and who, in despair of 
discovering it on the intellectual side, has taken refuge 
•in the moral. Religion, vain speculatively, is resolved 
byhiin into ethics. Faith expires in conscience; dogma 
in morality. And this interesting writer closes his specu- 
lations with the regret, that he feels himself isolated 
from those Christian saints whose characters he regards 
as the purest in the world. 03 Such may probably be 
regarded as the type of thought of the most educated 
thinkers of France ; a feeling of partial belief, partial 
doubt ; a keen appreciation of the beauty of the char- 
acter of the great Founder of Christianity, and of the 
type of Christian morality, yet mixed with an entire 
distrust in the reality of all doctrines respecting the 
object of faith, from belief in which alone, as we .con- 
tend, this morality is the product. 

Doubts always suggest replies ; and there are not 
w inting minds in the Protestant church of France (46) 
that fully appreciate the doubts of educated minds such 
as these, and try to meet them by a more persuasive 
method than that by which the Catholic school sought 
to meet the doubters of the earlier part of the century. 
By the improper concessions however which they have 
made to save the vital part of religion, they have them- 
selves incurred the charge of sharing the rationalism of 
the country with whose literature they are acquainted. 
Assuming a position somewhat like Schleiermacher's, 
they are careful to distinguish between critical theology 
and doctrinal, and endeavour to propagate the latter 
rather than the former. Yet in the branch of doctrinal 



9 ' J At the close of La Chaire dlHebreu, 1862, he has however assumed 
a view of the world and of nature, less negative and more definite. 

9a See the preface to Etudes Relig. especially pp. 14, 1-5. It is hoped 
that injustice is not done to M. Re nan by these statements. Perhaps they 
interpret his thoughts more pointedly than he himself would do, and attri- 
bute to him as positive conclusions what rather are incipient tendencies. 
They are the result however of a careful study of his various works, and 
were written before his recent Discours cTOuverture ; De la part des . 
Peuplcs Sctnitiques, which seems to confirm them. 



LECTURE VII. .305 

theology, it must be feared that they have either con- 
ceded some of the mysteries of Christianity as obsolete, 
or at least have improperly concealed them as likely 
to repel doubters. Though we must indeed be careful 
wisely to divide the word of life, and not to quench 
the quivering name of faith by creating an unnecessary 
repugnance; yet, if Christianity be a supernatural reve- 
lation from God, our plain course is to present the truth 
as it is in Jesus, unmutilated in the mystery of its diffi- 
culties, and leave the result with God. 

There is one feature however, in which these writers 
are a pattern worthy of imitation by all Christian apolo- 
gists. They preach to doubters not Christian dogmas, 
but Christ. If the doubters can be brought to appre- 
ciate Christ ; to meditate on his life ; to think of him 
as one who tasted of human suffering, and knew the 
poignancy of human temptation ; and whose heart of 
tender pity was ever open to the petition of the needy ; 
they will first admire, then believe, then trust : and 
when they have learned to love him as a Man of pity, 
it is to be hoped that they may be brought, by the 
drawings of the Holy Spirit, to worship and adore him 
as a God of love. Beginning, not with history, but 
with feeling ; starting with a religion based on the in- 
tuitive consciousness of needing Divine help ; we may 
hope to prepare them for receiving the historic testi- 
mony which tells of the Divine plan for human redemp- 
tion : leading them from the sense of sin to Him who 
saves from sin ; from the inward to the outward ; from 
Christ to Christianity ; from Christian doctrine to the 
perfectness of Christian faith. 






LECTURE VIII 



FREE THOUGHT FN ENGLAND IN THE PRESENT CENTURY 

SUMMARY OF THE COURSE OF LECTURES : 

INFERENCES IN REFERENCE TO PRESENT DANGERS AND 
DUTIES. 



Eccles. xii, 13. 

Lei as hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God, and keep 
his commandments ; for this is the whole duly of man. 

IN the last lecture we brought the history of unbelief 
on the continent clown to the present time. In this, 
the concluding one of the series, we shall complete the 
history of it in our own country or language during this 
century ; and afterwards deduce the moral of our whole 
historical sketch, and suggest practical inferences. 

In the account of unbelief in England, given in a 
previous lecture, 1 we hardly entered upon the present 
century, except so far as to observe the influence of the 
philosophy of the last on works of literature, such as 
•those of Shelley; or on political speculations, such as 
those of Owen. Yet even here we were already made 
to feel the presence of the new influences, which have 
completely altered the tone of unbelief. Even Shelley's 
later works, though marked by the outbursts of bitter 
passion against religion, contain more of the spiritualper- 
ception which is the characteristic of present thought : 2 

1 In Lect. V. 

2 Some remarks will be found a few pages farther, in reference to the 
subjective spirit and stronger consciousness of the ethical clement in 
human nature, which are evinced in the litc.iture of the present century. 



LECTUEE VIII. 30 T 

and the oblivion into which Owen's system soon fell, 
save as it has been resuscitated in moments of political 
disaifection, together with its failure to leave a perma- 
nent impression, like the socialist systems of France, 
arose from the circumstance that the one-sided survey 
of man's nature, on which, it was based, could not de- 
ceive an age which was characterised by an increasing 
depth in its moral perceptions. 

The unbelief of the present day differs from that 
of the last century in tone and character ; and in many 
respects shares the traits already noticed in the modern 
intellectualism of Germany, and the eclecticism of 
France. It is not disgraced by ribaldry ; hardly at 
all by political agitation against the religion which it 
disbelieves : it is marked by a show of fairness, and 
professes a wish not to ignore facts, nor to leave them 
unexplained. Conceding the existence of spiritual and 
religious elements in human nature, it admits that their 
subjective existence as facts of consciousness, no less 
than their objective expression in the history of relig- 
ion, demands explanation, and cannot be hastily set 
aside, as was thought in the last century in France, by 
the vulgar theory that the one is factitious, and the 
other the result of priestly contrivance. The writers 
are men whose characters and lives forbid the idea that 
their unbelief is intended as an excuse for licentiousness. 
Denying revealed religion, they cling the more tena- 
ciously to the moral instincts : their tone is one of 
earnestness ; their inquiries are marked by a profound 
conviction of the possibility of finding truth : not con- 
tent with destroying, their aim is to reconstruct. Their 
opinions are variously manifested. Some of them ap- 
pear in treatises of philosophy j others insinuate them- 
selves indirectly in literature : some of them relate to 
Christian doctrines ; others to the criticism of scripture 
documents : but in all cases their authors either leave 
a residuum which they profess will satisfy the longings 
of human nature, or confess with deep pain that their 
conclusions are in direct conflict with human aspira- 
tions ; and, instead of revelling in the ruin which they 



308 LECTURE' VIII. 

have made, deplore with a tone of sadness the impossi- 
bility of solving the great enigma. 

It is clear that writers like these offer a wholly dif- 
ferent appearance from those of the last century. The 
deeper appreciation manifested by them of the systems 
which they disbelieve, and the more delicate learning 
of which they are able to avail themselves, constitute 
features formerly lacking in the works of even the most 
serious-minded deists, 3 and require a difference in the 
spirit, if not in the mode, in which Christians must seek 
to refute them. 

The solution of this remarkable phenomenon is. to 
be found in the universal change which has passed over 
every department of mental activity in England in the 
present century. The peculiar feature of it may be 
described by the word sjnritucdity, if that word be used 
to imply, in contrast to the utilitarian and materialist 
tendencies of the last century, the consciousness in our- 
selves, and appreciation in others, of the operation of 
the human spirit, its rights, its powers, and its effects. 
This conviction stimulates in one the vivid conscious- 
ness of duty and moral earnestness ; in another it hal- 
lows human labour, and throws a blessedness around 
the struggles of industry ; in another it kindles the in- 
spiration of art, breaking up conventionalities of style, 
or expresses itself in poetry, in soliloquies on the inner 
feelings or in meditations on life, as a set of problems 
to be explained by the heart. Elsewhere it lifts the 
man of science above the grovelling idea that discover- 
ies must be sought solely for the purpose of utility. 
Again, transferring its perception of the operation of 
spirit to the world of nature, it not unfrequently at- 
tributes a soul thereto, and induces a subtle pantheism. 
Sometimes too by a singular reaction it has a tendency, 
by the moral earnestness which it stimulates, to depress 
intellectual speculation, and to wear the appearance of 
fostering the utilitarianism which it combats. 

Such is the central principle which characterises 
our literature, and which, through the diffusion of 

3 Such as Herbert and Morgan. 



LECTURE VIII. 809 

reading, has moulded the public judgment, and, oper- 
ating in every department of educated thought, has 
even altered the form in which unbelief expresses itself. 

Probably the successive steps of the growth of this 
subjective tendency in literature might admit of easy 
statement. The meditative school of poetry, which 
flourished early in the century 4 among a few refined 
minds at the English lakes ; which loved to ponder 
mystically on nature or on the spiritual world, or to 
catch the thought excited in the mind by nature, and 
follow the series of thoughts which the law of mental 
association suggested, 5 was one means of creating a 
subjective and spiritual taste among the youth of the 
generation which succeeded. 

Another cause was found in the philosophy which 
arose. The years following the general declaration of 
peace, while the public attention was directed to the 
political reforms which were consummated in the Re- 
form act, were marked by the thorough investigation 
of the first principles of every branch of knowledge. 
Two minds of that period have, more than any other, 
affected the succeeding generation ; the one a utilita- 
rian, philosopher, the other an intuitional. 

Both alike carried out the system which Descartes 
and Bacon had inaugurated, of finding the standard of 
truth in the analysis of the powers of the human under- 
standing. But Bentham criticised to destroy the past ; 
Coleridge to rebuild it. The one asked, Is a doctrine 

4 On the influence of the Lake school of poetry, see D. M. Moir's 
Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the past half century, 1851, ch. i. and 
ii. The Lake school being a reaction against the materialist school, which 
almost degraded spirit to matter, traced a soul in nature, and was in danger 
of elevating matter to spirit. Other branches of art besides poetry exhibit 
a similar change of tone. This is remarkably manifest in the modern land- 
scape art of England, and is developed incidentally in Mr. Ruskin's work, . 

The Modern Painters. We have already had occasion, in Lecture VI, to p.. 2J? 
advert to the similarity in result of the Lake school of English poetry to 
the Romantic school of Germany. Both were spiritual schools ; but the 
former strove to learn from the freshness of nature, the latter from the 
freshness of an earlier stage of civilization. 

5 A very able analysis of the mental character of Wordsworth, to whom 
the words in the text allude, was given in the National Review, No; 7, 
Jan. 1857. 



310 LECTUEE VIII. 

true ? The other asked, what men had meant by it 
who had thought it so f The one overlooked the truth 
previously known ; the other too boldly strove to re- 
build it from his own consciousness, after surrendering 
the old proofs of it. The one, with the practical spirit 
of the Englishman, looked upon an opposing opinion 
only as an object suited for attack ; the other, with a 
spirit caught from Germany, felt that there was some 
truth everywhere latent. But both were reformers ; 
both stimulated the revolt against the cold spirit of the 
last century ; both contributed to create, the one in- 
directly, the other intentionally, a subjective spirit by 
their psychological analysis. 

Even movements which at first sight seem most 
alien to this spirit in character, have really been affected 
unconsciously by it. 7 The ecclesiastical reaction which 
sprang up about a quarter of a century ago, though 
seemingly most objective in its nature, witnessed not 
less than the very opposite, or rationalistic tendency, 
to the presence of this influence. For both alike were 
founded on the idea that religion lacked a philosophical 
groundwork : both sought a new ground of faith differ- 
ent from that of the last century ; the one in those ut- 
terances of consciousness which created a reverence for 
historic tradition ; the other in those intuitions which 
were supposed to rise above scripture and tradition, 
and to form the basis and measure of both. 

The causes just named in literature and philosophy 
respectively, are some of those which have contributed 
to create or to foster the change in the character of the 
literature, and in the spirit of the age, which has pro- 
duced the alteration of tone which exists in the modern 
sceptical literature. 



6 Two very valuable essays occur, on Bentham and Coleridge respec- 
tively, in Mr. J. S. Mill's Essays and Dissertations, vol. i. (reprinted from 
the Westminster Review, Aug. 1838 and March 1840). See especially the 
comparison of these two philosophers at p. 395 seq. 

7 This is shown in a very striking manner in the National Review, 
Oct. 1856, in which a comparison is instituted of the effects on the English 
mind of the three teachers, J. II. Newman, Coleridge, and Carlyle. 



LECTURE VIII. 311 

In passing from these remarks on the peculiarly 
subjective tone of modern unbelief, and the literary in- 
fluences which have produced the general change in 
the public taste, of which it is only one example, to an 
enumeration of the authors who have given expression 
to doubt, and of the specific forms of doubt now exist- 
ing, we encounter a difficulty of classification. 

The most obvious arrangement would be to place 
the writers in groups, according as they manifest a 
tendency toward atheism, pantheism, deism, or rational- 
ism, 8 respectively ; but the mode which more nearly 
accords with our general purpose would be to adopt a 
philosophical rather than a theological classification, 
and arrange them according to the variety in the tests 
of truth employed by them, and the sources from which 
their arguments start, rather than the con-elusions at 
which they arrive. Perhaps the advantage of both 
plans will be in a great degree combined, if we classify 
them according to the branch of science, physical, 
mental, or critical, from which the doubts take their 
rise. 

We shall commence with those writers who make 
sensation to be the last appeal in belief, or whose doubts 
arise either from the methods or the results of physical 
science. This class of opinions varies from positive dis- 
belief of the supernatural, generated by the fixed belief 
in the stability of nature and disbelief of miraculous 
interference, to merely isolated objections suggested by 
the conflict between the discoveries of natural science 
and the statements of holy scripture. 

The name which most fitly describes the extreme 
form of unbelief is Positivism. This system of philoso- 

8 This is the arrangement adopted in Mr. Pearson's -work on Infidelity, 
named on p. 13, note. 

9 Concerning Comte's philosophy see the note on p. 295. The West- 
minster Review is the periodical which at present embodies its spirit. The 
works of Mr. G. H. Lewes, his History of Philosophy, and his exposition 
of Comte (Bohn 1853), may be noticed as books in which the philosophical, 
and, to some extent, the theological spirit of positivism prevails. The 
mind of Mr. J. S. Mill has been largely influenced by this philosophy r to 
which his tastes for natural science disposed him ; though the influence on 



312 lecture vm. 

pixy, already stated to have been invented by Comte, 
is silent about the existence of a Deity. It inculcates 
the belief in general laws, and acknowledges the order 
in Nature, which we are accustomed to regard as the 
result of mind ; but declines to argue to the existence 
of a designing mind, where the evidence cannot be veri- 
fied by proof referable to sensation. Nature's laws are 
in its view the only Providence ; obedience to them the 
only piety. A few minds may be found, which not 
only accept the positive philosophy, but even receive 
the religion taught in the positivist catechism. 10 Unable 
to satisfy the longings of their heart by this system of 
Cosmism, they receive the extravagant idea of the wor- 
ship of humanity, which Comte invented in his later 
days. 

Such a creed cannot hold the masses. But Posi- 
tivism in another shape, called Secularism, 11 is actively 

him of the philosophy of his father, James Mill, and of Bcntham, as well 
as his own originality of mind, prevents him from being a mere disciple of 
Comte. These writers however have almost abstained from touching 
directly on the subject of religion. The character of Positivism, as an 
intellectual tendency, has been sketched by Mr. Morell, in the Lectures on 
the Philosophical tendencies of the Age, 1848. 

10 The view of religion as a worship of the ideal of humanity, in the 
form of practical ethics and social study, which is taken by the better class 
of Positivists, is stated at length in the Westmi7ister Review for April 1858, 
together with an explanation of the extravagant views, of Comte, in the 
Catrchisme Positiviste, which has been translated by one who was formerly 
highly respected as an indefatigable teacher, in one of the public schools, 
and afterwards in one of the universities. 

J1 Secularism is the name adopted a few years ago by Mr. G. J. rfoly- 
oake. See Christianity and Secidarism ; Report of the Public Discus- 
sion between the Rev. B. Grant and Mr. Holyoake ; also, Modem Atheistn, 
or the Pretensions of Secularism, examined; a course of Four Lectures, 
delivered in the Athenaeum, Bradford, by the Rev. J. Gregory, &c. 1852,- 
Secular Tracts, by the Rev. J. H. Hinton ; The Outcast and the Poor of 
London, Whitehall Sermons, by the Rev. F. Meyrick, p. 91 seq. In its 
social aspect it is the form of naturalism which has been borrowed from 
Owen and Combe ; in its religious, from Comte. The political tone of this 
system is expressed in a poem, The Purgatory of Suicides; a Prison 
Rhyme, by Ihomas Cooper the Chartist, 1858 ; and the religious in the 
Confessions of Jose pit. Barker, a Convert from Christianity, 1858. Also 
in the tracts of Mr. Holyoake, e. g. The Logic of Death, written in 1849, 
during the cholera. These last two writers are the chief teachers of the 
system. Some small magazines are devoted to its propagation. A criti- 
cism on these tendencies anions; the working classes will be found, from 



lecture vm. 313 

propagated among the lower orders. Replacing the 
sensuous philosophy and political antipathies of Owen, 
it is taught, unconnected with the political agitation 
which marked his views, as a philosophy of life, and 
a substitute for religion. It asserts three great princi- 
ples : — first, that nature is the only subject of knowl- 
edge ; the existence of a personal God being regarded 
as uncertain : secondly, that science is the only Provi- 
dence : and thirdly, that the great business of man is, 
as the name, secularism, implies, to attend to the affairs 
of the present world, which is certain, rather than of 
a future, which is uncertain. Not content however 
with this negative position, the writers of this class, 
as was to be expected, have directed positive attacks 
against the special doctrines of Christianity, and regard 
the Bible to be the enemy of progress. 12 

It is impossible to estimate* the extent to which these 
views are diffused. The statistics of the sale of secu- 
larist tracts would doubtless 2*ive an exaggerated idea 
of it. The high standard of morality advocated in them, 
so likely to attract rather than repel, the clear writing, 
and the agreement of the views with the experience 
afforded by the daily life of working men, give them 
power among the lower orders. The absorbing charac- 
ter of labour has a tendency, especially in an advanced 
state of civilization, to depress the sense of the super- 

the Unitarian point of view, in the National Review, No. 15, Jan. 1859, 
where this class of political and religious obstacles, encountered in dealing 
with the working classes, is contrasted with the mere animalism described 
in Miss Marsh's English Hearts and Hands ; and from a more sceptical 
point of view, in the Westminster Review for Jan. 18G2, where an extract 
is. given (p. 83) concerning Holyoake's view of Deity. The following 
terrible utterance, taken from his Discussion with Townley (p. 68), will 
give an idea of his tone : "Science has shown us that we are under the 
dominion of general laws, and that there is no special Providence. Nature 
acts with fearful uniformity : stern as fate, absolute as tyranny, merciless 
as death; too vast to praise, too inexplicable to worship, too inexorable to 
propitiate ; it has no ear for prayer, no heart for sympathy, no arm to 
save." 

12 The chief points against which the objections have been taken are, 
the scriptural account of the character of Christ, the doctrine of atonement, 
and the necessity of faith to salvation. See the Report of the discussion 
which is referred to at the commencement of the last note ? 

14 



314 LECTUEE VIII. 

natural in man, and fix his thoughts on the present 
world : and it is generally the sense of trouble alone 
which can lift men out of themselves, and recall to their 
remembrance the presence of a God on whom the sor- 
rowing heart may lean for help. 

Opinions derived from positivism, or at least from 
physical science, enter into other spheres of thought 
than those j ust named ; and both affect writers who 
hardly touch upon the subject of religion ; and create 
difficulties in the minds of Christians themselves, either 
in reference to prime doctrines of religion, or the par- 
ticular teaching on physical questions implied in the 
sacred books. 

The diffusion of the fundamental conception of the 
perpetuity of nature's laws, has a tendency to create 
in literature a mode of viewing the world alien to the 
providential view of the divine government implied in 
religion. The application of statistics in social philoso- 
phy for the discovery of the general laws which regu- 
late society and create civilization, not unfrequently 
leaves an impression that man as well as matter de- 
pends upon fixed laws ; which is irreconcileable with 
belief in human freedom or in divine interference, and 
sometimes causes religion to be regarded as a conserva- 
tive force, which in its nature is alien to civilization.' 3 

Nor is the danger confined to the various branches 
of secular literature : the views of even religious men 
are not unfrequently modified by it, or painful doubts 
are created where the head contradicts the heart. In 
proportion as phenomena are shown not to depend on 
chance, the misgiving is felt as to the reality of special 
providence and the value of prayer, in reference to tem- 
poral affairs. The sphere for confiding petitions is felt 
to be narrowed ; and miracles, instead of becoming an 
evidence for religion, become a difficulty. Even where 
fundamental difficulties, such as these, do not sap the 
religious life, the belief that the inspiration of the sacred 
books guarantees the truth of the views of physical 

13 Mr. Buckle's work on the History of Civilization is an instance to 
which these statements apply. 



LECTURE vni. 315 

science, the cosmogony, physiology, ethnology, and 
chronology, contained therein, creates a further body 
of difficulties, 14 less fundamental but more painful, be- 
cause founded on the apparent want of harmony of 
scripture with the progressive discoveries of natural 
science. 

While these are the species of temptations to un- 
belief which appertain to one source of opinions,, viz. 
that which relies upon sensation as the ultimate test 
of truth; doubts similar in character, though different 
in cause, manifest themselves in that portion of our 
literature which appeals for its proof to the faculty of 
insight, and which believes in mental sources of infor- 
mation which are independent of sensation. If the one 
tends towards atheism, or to a deism in which the world 
is viewed as a machine ; the other tends towards pan- 
theism or to naturalism, wherein no opportunity for in- 
terposition by miraculous revelation is retained, but the 
inner consciousness of man is regarded as able to create 
a religion. The former class of views belongs to minds 
accustomed to experimental science ; this to those which 
are conversant with spiritual or aesthetic subjects : the 
former expresses itself in the region of science, and 
tempts men of thought ; the hitter expresses itself 
rather in the region of literature, and tempts men of 
sentiment. 

One writer, a prince in the region of letters, 15 may 
be adduced, many of whose works imply, directly or 
indirectly, a mode of viewing the world and society 
contrary to that which is taught in Christianity. He 
is the highest type of the antagonist position which liter- 
ature now assumes in reference to the Christian faith, 

J4 The difficulties alluded to are, those suggested by geology, concern- 
ing the narrative of creation, the deluge, and the date of the creation of 
man ; or by physiology, concerning the longevity of the patriarchs ; or by 
ethnology, concerning the unity of mankind. 

16 T. Carlyle. The character of his writings and philosophy is explain- 
ed and criticised in Morell's History of Philosophy, ii. 249 seq. ; and in an 
able manner in the Westminster Review, Oct. 1839 ; both which sources 
have been much used in the following brief account. The latter article 
would be considered probably to need a slight alteration, in consequence 
of the slight change of character in Carlyle's more recent works. 



316 LECTURE VIII. 

and which finds some parallel in the contest which oc- 
curred in Julian's time, and at the Renaissance. 

Though possessing too much originality to borrow 
consciously from the literature of Germany, yet it is 
easy to discover that the fire of his imagination has been 
kindled in contact with the "marvellous insight of Goethe, 
the pathos of Jean Paul, and the faith in eternal truth 
which marked Jacobi. Their rival rather than disciple, 
he hails the philosophy of his own country as a first ap- 
proximation to truth ; but regards the German mind 
as having seen more deeply than any other of modern 
times into the mysteries of existence. Though not formal 
enough to throw his philosophy into a system, he has 
left an impress on the English literature of this century. 
In every branch of literature which he has surveyed, 
he has made it his mission to expose the hollow formal- 
ism, the cold materialism, which he considers that utili- 
tarian philosophy had produced. " Self in the sense 
of selfishness, and God as the artificial property of a 
party ; " these have been said to be the two faults which 
he sees in politics, in science, in law, in literature, in 
religion : and, to oppose this inrush of objective knowl- 
edge ; to call man to a recognition of his better self, to 
the unaltering spiritual laws stamped in the structure 
of the human consciousness, and to God as the eternal, 
infinite Divinity, whose presence fills creation ; this is 
the mission which he has striven to effect. 

Yet can there be no doubt that the victory of this 
great truth is won at the sacrifice of others ; and that 
in the general tone of his writings, and above all in his 
memoir of the doubter Sterling, 10 he occupies a posi- 
tion opposed to the particular forms of religious truth 
taught by Christianity, and one which a philosopher 
of tastes cognate to his own, Coleridge, forming him- 
self under the psychological rather than the literary 
influence of German thought, strove to retain. In ele- 
vating the doctrine of the revelation in the soul, he re- 
gards as unnecessary the revelation in the book :" his 

16 Cfr. bis Life of Sterling, 1850, pp. 126, 1. 

17 It may be enough to refer to such a passage as Peud and Present, 
pp. 305-9. 



LECTURE vin. 317 

teaching tends to inculcate a worship of earnestness, 
and to ignore all consideration of the object toward 
which the earnestness is directed. In asserting the 
reality of spiritual laws in the soul, he has implied the 
veracity of all religions, caring only for the subjective 
zeal of the believer, not lor the objects of his belief. 18 
In opposing the mechanical view of the universe, he is 
so overwhelmed with the mystery which belongs to it, 
that the soul recoils in the hopelessness of speculation, 
to rest content with work rather than belief. And his 
readers, attracted by his power of satire and depth of 
insight, expressed in a style full of force by reason of 
its peculiarity, return to their daily life after imbibing 
his teaching, excited to greater earnestness and faith- 
fulness, but filled, it is to be feared, with a contempt 
for objective systems, for dogmatic truth, and for the 
Christian creed. 1 " 

In the master the strong and deep sense of person- 
ality and of freedom obliterates the tendency to absorb 
human individuality in the overpowering mystery of 
the universe ; but this tendency is developed in the 
early works of an American writer, 20 who has drawn 
from some of the same sources as the author just de- 
scribed, but who also owes much directly to him. In 
him philosophy seems to degenerate into pantheism. 
Nature is a vast whole, in which we are parts, vibra- 
tions of a chord, radiations of the eternal light. 21 Start- 
ing from a unitarian point of view, Christianity appears 
to be resolved into natural religion ; and the historic 
view of Christianity, aud the habit of considering the 
revelation as something long ago given, are regarded 

18 Past and Present, pp. 193, 4. 

19 Id. pp. 271, 2. 

20 Mr. Emerson : it ought to be noticed however that the following 
remarks are applicable mainly, if not wholly, to his earlier works ; on which 
there is a criticism, similar to that cited in reference to Carlyle, in the 

Westminster Review, March 1840. 

21 I am nothing — I see all — the currents of the universal being circu- 
late through me — lam part or particle of God." — Nature, p. 13. These 
were the words which this author formerly used. The same tendency can 
probably be traced in the characters of Plato and Goethe in his Representa- 
tive Men. See also the Oration on the Christian -Teacher. 



318 LECTUKE VIII. 

as being at the bottom of the decay of religion. In his 
admiration of genius, he seems to imply an idolatry of 
mere intellect ; and developes that tendency which has 
been always observable in pantheism to unite the worlds 
of good and evil, and teach that evil is " good in the 
making." The universe is God ; evil and good are 
equally essential parts of it. 

This peculiar tendency to narrow the barrier be- 
tween the two worlds is observable, not merely in 
direct admissions of writers like the one just adduced, 
but lurks as a peculiar danger in the modern literature 
of fiction. The danger in fiction, as in all art, can arise 
only from the character of the subject portrayed, or the 
manner employed in producing the copy. In the pres- 
ent day the evil arises specially from the latter cause. 
The subjective spirit, causing a perception of the duty 
of exactness, has contributed to foster a realistic taste 
in art, which requires such minuteness of treatment, 
that a work of fiction so constructed, while preserving 
the freshness of nature, may violate moral perspective, 
and leave the impression that good and evil are insep- 
arably intermixed in each character or in nature itself. 
The very photographic exactness of the modern novel 
copies the features without selection or discrimination, 
and presents each moral character as a mixed one, and 
makes evil pass into good, and good into evil. Though 
it is quite true that no character is unmixed, yet it ought 
not to be forgotten that the evil is present as a disease, 
the good as the normal state. If approached from the 
philosophical side, the presence of evil as well as its ori- 
gin is inexplicable, save by the pantheistic hypothesis ; 
if approached however from the moral, our own instincts 
tell us that it is diametrically opposed to good ; and it 
is important to be on our guard against the influence 
of modern literature, which in any way implies the con- 
trary. 

We have hitherto exhibited the systems in the pres- 
ent day, which by their influence, direct or indirect, as- 
sume a position antagonistic to Christianity. Com- 
mencing with positivism, we explained the doubts 



LECTURE VIII. 319 

which, being built on a sensationalist basis, reject the 
possibility of revelation ; or, on an ideal, reject its ne- 
cessity. ■ We now proceed to describe the works writ- 
ten as direct attacks upon Christianity, founded indeed 
on an idealist basis, but in which the philosophy is in 
the main subordinate to the critical investigation. 
Marked by the improved tone which was before de- 
scribed, and enriched with the fruits of the researches 
'of German theologians, they form at once the books 
which are likely to meet us in daily life ; and equal 
those of past generations in subtlety and danger. We 
shall commence with those which are most openly infi- 
del, and gradually pass onward to those which shade 
off almost into unitarianism, until we reach the critical 
difficulties which in the writings of avowedly Christian 
professors have given ground for the charge of ration- 
alism. 

The first writer to be named 22 is one who in two 
works, the one " a Comparison of the Intellectual Pro- 
gress of Hebrews and Greeks in their religious develop- 
ment," the other on " the Origin of Christianity," has 
made a daring attempt, not to refute Christianity 
directly, but to grapple with the historic problem of the 
origin of revealed religions ; and endeavoured to ex- 
plain them by regular historic and psychical considera- 
tions. In making this attempt he has availed himself 
of the modern investigations into mythology, and the 
relation which it bears at once to the soul, to philoso- 
phy, and to religion. In the last century mythology 
was either derided in a Lucian-like spirit, or else re- 
garded as the relic of primitive traditions. In the 
present these views have mostly disappeared ; and the 
theories which exist in reference to it are chiefly two, 
in the one of which myths are explained by nature- 
worship, and sacred mysteries, and are regarded as para- 
bles descriptive of natural processes ; in the other they 

22 R. W. Mackay, whose two works are, The Progress of the Intellect 
as exemplified in the Religious Development of the Greeks and Hebrews, 
2 vols. 1850, and The Rise and Progress of Christianity, 1851. (No. j 
of Chapman's Quarterly Series.) 



320 . LECTUKE VIII. 

are regarded as being connected with the origin of lan- 
guage, and the transfer of names from one object to 
another. (47) It is the former view which this writer 
has employed. Commencing . with the Hebrew Cos- 
mogony, 23 he traces the origin of the metaphysical no- 
tion of God" 4 through personification and polytheism, 
up to theism ; and next the origin of the moral notion 
of God, 25 regarding the notion of a fall to be a hypothe- 
sis to account for sin ; and explains away the idea of 
mediation by the absurd theory of supposing it to be 
made up of the two notions, of emanation, and of a 
waning deity derived from the personification of natural 
processes. 26 Having thus used mythology, in the man- 
ner of Yolney, to illustrate the rise of these conceptions 
among the Greeks and Hebrews respectively, he enters 27 
upon the religious history of the Hebrew people, and 
attempts to show that the idea of the theocracy with 
temporary rewards suggested the two correlative ideas 
of temporary reverse, and eventual restoration ; and 
thus, by the personification of the people's suffering, 
led to the idea of a 'suffering Messiah. 26 Discussing the 
complex Messianic conception, lie tries to explain its 
origin by natural causes, by resolving it 2a into a com- 
bination of the different types of thought, presented in 
the earlier history. Approaching the subject of Chris- 
tianity, he considers it to be one of the Jewish sects, a 
lawful continuation of the prophetic reforms ; 30 therein 
anticipating the idea which he" has developed in the 
second work above named, concerning the rise and 
progress of Christianity ; in which he has adopted the 
views of the historical criticism of the school of Tubin- 
gen. Regarding Christianity to be a reform of Juda- 

23 Progress of Intellect, vol. i. ch. ii. on " Mythical Geography and 
Cosmogony." 

24 Ch. iu. 25 Ch. iv. 

26 Vol. ii. ch. v. § 3 and 9. lie illustrates from natural processes ; such 
as the decay of nature. 

2T Ch. vi. 28 Ch. vii. 

29 Ch. viii. The types of thought which he traces in it are, the con- 
ception of prophet as taught by Moses; the idea of a supernatural incarna- 
tion ; the Davidic conception of a temporal .sovereign ; and the suffering 
Messiah of the book of Daniel. 3 " Ch. ix. and x. 



lecture vni. 321 

ism mixed with Greek dogmas, 31 lie attributes to St. 
Paul, in contrast to the Jewish apostles, the idea of 
giving it universality ; and to the early Roman church 
the idea of giving it unity ; 32 illustrating by natural 
causes the gradual origin of the church, 33 and the pre- 
tended concretion of dogmas 34 by mixture with Alexan- 
drian philosophy. 

These works, too recondite to be popular, and too 
unsatisfactory to be dangerous, do not appear likely to 
affect largely the English inquirer ; but the case is 
different with the work which next meets us by an- 
other author, " the Creed of Christendom," 35 which, on 
account of its clearness of statement and variety of ma- 
terial, is the most dangerous work of unbelief of this 
age. 

In the first part of the work the writer attacks the 
idea of inspiration, 36 with all modifications of the notion, 
as a gratuitous assumption ; and tries to disprove it by 
recapitulating the controversy respecting the authorship 
of the Pentateuch, and the authority of the Old Testa- 
ment canon, 37 as well as by the pretended non-fulfilment 
of the prophetic writings, 38 and the gradually progres- 
sive development of the Theism of the Jews. 89 Apply- 
ing a similar process to the Gospels, he states the diffi- 
culties which attend the literary question of their ori- 
gin 40 and fidelity of the narrative ; 41 trying to show that 
the apostles differed from each other, and held views 
differing from those taught by the Saviour, as recorded 
in the first three Gospels. 42 Approaching the subject 
of the use of miracles as an evidence, he contends that 

31 Rise of Christianity, parts i. and ii. 

32 Part iii. 33 Part iv. 34 Parts v. and vii. 

35 The Creed of Christendom, its Foundation and Superstructure, by 
W. Ratkbone Greg, 1851. A review of it by Mr. Martineau may be seen 
in Studies on Christianity (reprinted from the. Westminster Review), and 
by Remusat in Revue des Deux Mondes, Jan. 1859. 

36 Ch. i. and ii. 37 Ch. iii. 38 Ch. iv. 
3 ' J Ch. v. 40 Ch. vi. 41 Ch. vii. 

42 Ch. viii-xii. He adopts the view of the new Tiibingen school, in 
exaggerating the contrast between the description of the character and 
teaching of Christ in the "Synoptical" evangelists, and in the fourth 
Gospel. 

u* 



322 LECTURE VIII. 

they cannot prove a doctrine, and that their existence 
cannot be proved by documents. 43 In the examination 
of Christianity he holds only the humanity of Christ, 44 
and regards Christianity not to be superhuman, but an 
eclecticism from the Jewish religion ; a conception, not 
a revelation. 45 Successively attacking 46 the most sacred 
doctrines of our faith,— prayer, pardon, sin, — he is at 
last landed in the doubt of a future life, save so far as 
the intuitions seem to suggest it ; 47 and in conclusion he 
contents himself with the religion which consists in 
obedience to the physical, moral, intellectual, and social 
laws ; confessing however that the heart dictates to 
prayer and religion, but maintaining that the idea of 
general laws forbids the possibility of their reality." 

The next writer whom we must name, 43 has not 
rested CDiitent with a literary examination of existing 
religious forms, but has shown the consummation to 
which the modern criticism of religion leads. 3 he 
work, " Thoughts in aid of Faith," that is, hints to i d- 
vise those who have given up all other faith, is too char- 
acteristic of a certain type of thought to be omitted. It 
is an instance where the final result, to which philo- 
sophical investigation has conducted, bears a resem- 
blance to that reached by Feuerbach in Germany. 50 In 

43 Ch. xiii. 44 Ch. xiv. 

45 Ch. xv. 4fi Ch. xvi. 

47 Ch. xvii. IIo quotes the beautiful lines of Wordsworth, (Ode on 
Intimations of Immortality, § 5,) "Heaven lies about us in our infancy," 
&c: as illustrative of the instinctive feeling of man in reference to immor- 
tality. 4b Page 303. 

49 Miss S. Ilennell, whose chief writings are, Christianity and Infidel- 
ity, a prize essay, an exposition of the arguments on both sides, 1F57; 
The Sceptical Tendency of Butler's Analog;/, 1859; The Early Christiai 
Anticipation of the End of the World, I860; Thoughts in Aid of Fait i, 
gathered chiefly from recent works in Theology and Philosophy, I860. 
Iler views originally were the same as those of her brother, a deceased 
unitarian minister, author of a work on Theism (1852), in which the use 
of miracles as an evidence was depreciated. It is hoped that it will not be 
considered improper to have named a writer, whose sex might be expected 
to shelter her from remark ; but her writings are too able to be unproduc- 
tive of influence. 

60 Thoughts in Aid of Faith, ch. i. This work was reviewed in the 
Westminster Review, July 1860, and the North British Review f o • Nov. 
1860. 



LECTURE vni. 323 

the treatment of the subject, the tenderness of human 
character has not disappeared ; and belief in the teach- 
ing of religion is surrendered with painful sadness. 
Starting at first from the unitarian point of view, this 
writer has gradually advanced, by the aid of the modern 
philosophy, to the very pantheism at which philosophy 
stood in the early ages of oriental speculation. In a 
review of the historical and psychical 51 origin of religion 
and Christianity, the idea of a divine Being is regarded 
as merely the giving existence to an abstraction, the 
objectifying of the subjective ; and Christianity, as the 
form in which the notion of a personal God necessarily 
clothes itself: so that the idea of God becomes a fiction 
created by the mind ; Christianity a fiction created by 
the heart. Though an appreciation is shown of an- 
cient forms of religion, 52 all are regarded as visionary ; 
and, in looking forward to the future, philosophy affords 
no cheering hope : nothing remains, save the annihila- 
tion taught by the ancient Buddhists. 63 

The course of the history now brings before us two 
writers, who stand distinguished from the last group by 
their firm theism, and strong protest against pantheism 
in every form. One of them was an American ; 54 the 
other an alumnus of this university. 55 

The life and w T ork of the former, so far as they relate 
to our inquiries, may soon be told. 515 In early life a 

51 Ch. ii. 62 E. g. ch. v. 

53 Ch. vi. and vii. It is a result not unlike that of positivism, but 
reached from the ohtological instead of the physical side. 

54 Mr. Theodore Parker of Boston. 

55 Mr. F. Newman. The wide spread of the works of these two writers, 
especially of the latter, is the reason why it is thought desirable to exhibit 
their views at some length. The pathos and eloquence which belong to 
their writings impart to them a fascination which makes it the more neces- 
sary that readers should be on their guard, by understanding the position 
which these authors hold in relation to faith and to unbelief. 

50 The particulars are obtained from the account of Mr. Parker's 
ministry, prefixed to his Sermons on Theism. He was at first a unitarian 
minister ; but, changing from unitarianism into deism, he left that body, 
and became a preacher in Boston, until he was compelled to visit Europe 
on account of enfeebled health. He died at Florence, 1860. His doctrinal 
views may be learned from the Discourse on Matters pertaining to Reli- 
gion, written in 1846, and the Sermons on TJieism, Atheism, and the 






324 LECTURE VIH. 

unitarian minister, he caught the spirit of intellectual 
inquiry and reconsideration which Channing had ex- 
cited ; and devoted himself with indefatigable industry 
to study the modern philosophy and criticism of Ger- 
many, until he became one of the most learned men of 
the American continent. In his own country his fear- 
less and uncompromising denunciation of slavery, as 
well as of political and commercial hollowness, caused 
him to be view r ed as a social reformer rather than a 
theological teacher. In ours he is view T ed as a teacher 
of deism. The cause of his power is obvious. Feeling 
that his mission w r as not merely to pull down, but to 
build up, he spoke with the vigour of a dogmatist, not 
with the coldness of a critic. To a burning eloquence 
and native wit he united the picturesque power of the 
novelist or the artist. But his vigour of style was de- 
formed by a pow r er of sarcasm which often invested the 
most sacred subjects with caricature and vulgarity ; a 
boundless malignity against supposed errors. How 
different is the tone of his satire from the delicate 
touches of the modern French critic" who was named 
in the last lecture ! and yet, on the other hand, how 
changed from that of the infidel w T riters of the last cen- 
tury. Though he equals Paine in vulgarity, and Yol- 
taire in sarcasm, his spirit and moral tone are higher. 
They wrote, actuated by a bitter spirit against the 
Christian religion, without earnestness, without reli- 
gious aspirations, with the coldness of unbelievers : he, 
with the earnestness of a preacher touched with the 
deepest feelings ; and though the Christian writer will 
si i udder at his remarks as much as at theirs, yet he sees 
them modified by passages of pathetic sentiment, in 
which, in words unrivalled in sceptical literature, ad- 

Popular Theology, 1853; and his critical and literary views, from the 
Introduction to the Old Testament, based on I)e Wette ; and from his Mis- 
cellaneous Writings, 1848. A comparison of him with Strauss, which has 
been here used, was given in the Westm. Rev. for April 1847. His 
character and life have also been sketched in the Nat. Rev. Jan. 18G0, and 
especially by A. Rcville in the Revue des Deux Morales, Oct. 1861. 
67 E. Kenan. Sec p. 303. 






LECTURE vm. 325 

miration is expressed of Christ, of Christianity, and of 
scrip ture. 58 

Such was the man as a teacher. What was his doc- 
trine ? He sought and found in the human faculties 
the test of truth, not dwelling, like Strauss, on their 
tendency to deceive ; but, like Schelling, on their certi- 
tude. He placed the ground of religion on the emo- 
tional side of the soul, in the feeling of dependence ; 5J 
and correlatively, on the intellectual side, in the intui- 
tions of God, the moral law, and immortal life. 

Assuming, on the principle of spiritual supply and 
demand, that capacity proves object, (the natural real- 
ism which we attribute to the senses being thus applied 
to the intellectual instincts,) he regarded the intuitions 
to be real, and traced the mode in which reasoning and 
experience develope them into conceptions. 00 But, afraid 
of giving too anthropomorphic a form to his conception 
of deity, he fell almost into the abstract conception of 
the English, deists ; and in the notion of God's general 
providence, lost the fatherlike conception of the divine 
Being with which the human analogy invests Him. 
Few nobler attacks however on atheism, 61 or defences 
of the benevolent character of the divine Being, 62 exist, 
than those which he has supplied. But at this point 
the Christian must altogether part company with him ; 
for he next proceeded to argue against the possibility 
of miracle or special providence ; identifying inspira- 
tion 63 with the utterance of human genius, and regard- 
ing Christianity merely as the best exponent of man's 
moral nature ; as one form of religion, but not the final 
one. The Bible, which as a collection of literary works, 

58 In the Discourse pertaining to Matters of Religion, books ii, iii, iv. 
The writer is unable to put the exact references to this work in the remarks 
which follow; having omitted to note thern down when he had the book at 
hand. 

59 Discourse, book i. 

60 The steps through which he considers that the idea of God is devel- 
oped into a conception are, Fetishism, Polytheism, and Monotheism; 
Dualism and Pantheism being errors which lead astray from Monotheism. 

61 Sermons on T/ieism, sermons i. and ii. 

62 Id. sermons ix. and x. 

63 Discourse on Religion, books ii. and iv. 



326 LECTURE VIII. 

the religious literature of a Semitic people, lie appreci- 
ated with enthusiastic admiration, 64 was degraded from 
its position of a final authoritative utterance of religious 
truth, and was regarded as the embodiment of the 
thoughts of spiritual men of old time who were striving 
after truth, and spoke according to the light which 
they possessed. The religion which he taught was 
called by him " the absolute religion." It was merely 
deism, built on a sounder basis, and spiritualized by 
contact with a truer philosophy. 

The other writer " to whom allusion has been made, 
though superior to the one just described in refinement 
and acuteness, resembles him in possessing deep aspira- 
tions and serious research, and in standing apart from 
the unbelief of the last century, which manifested no 
loftiness of aim, nor earnest conviction. He stands 
forth too in a more interesting position, from the cir- 
cumstance that his starting-point was not unitarianism, 
but the creed of our own church ; and that he has given 
a psychological autobiography, a painful and thrilling 
self-portraiture ; G0 in which he traces step by step his 
surrender of his early opinions, from the time of his 
first doubts, when he was a student in this university, 
to his fully developed deism. 

The destructive side of his teaching is conveyed in 
the narrative of the " Phases " of his Faith. Educated 
in the tenets of the more spiritual section of the church, 
he gradually began, as he has stated, to reconsider his 
opinions as his mind was awakened by study. The 
moral identity of Sabbath and Sunday ; the practice of 
infant baptism ; the connexion of a spiritual effect with 
what he considered to be a material cause implied in 
baptismal regeneration ; the reasons for the superior 
efficacy of Christ's sacrifice over the Mosaic ; the dis- 
covery of gradual development in scripture ; these were 
the first thoughts that agitated him. 67 Unable to solve 
them to his satisfaction, he hesitated not to abandon, 

61 E. g. in Discourse, book iii. and several passages in. the Introduction 
to the, Old Testament. 

66 Mr. F. W. Newman. 66 TJie Phases of Faith, 1850. 67 Ch. i. 



LECTUEE VIII. 327 

with noble and manly self-sacrifice, the friends that he 
held dear ; and to wander forth from the established 
church, to seek a primitive Christianity elsewhere. 
Puzzled by the difficulty of the supposed mistake of the 
apostolic church, in expecting the sudden return of 
Christianity, he adopted the chiliastic hypothesis ; and, 
unable to join in ministerial work in England, went as 
a missionary into the East. 68 On his return, alienated 
from the friends of his youth and from the new instruct- 
ors with whom he had consorted, he sought truth in 
the solitude of his own heart ; and was led to throw 
off Calvinism and adopt Unitarianism. 69 His fourth 
phase of faith led him, while clinging to Christianity, 
to renounce the religion of the Book. It consisted in 
an examination of many of the difficulties which criti- 
cism has discovered ; from which he was unhappily led 
to conclude that the Bible was not free from error, nor 
above moral criticism ; 70 believing nevertheless that the 
Bible was made for man, though not man for the Bible. 
The two concluding phases of his faith 71 consisted in 
appreciating the great law of progress which he consid- 
ers to mark religion ; and discovering that faith at sec- 
ond hand is vain, and that the historical truthfulness 
of Christianity is unimportant, the ideas embodied in it 
constituting its truth. 72 

In reading this painful record, we feel ourselves in 
contact with a mind cultivated in miscellaneous science 
and in the Semitic languages, disciplined as well as in- 
formed ; which lays bare with transparent sincerity the 
history of the stages through which he has successively 
passed. . Hitherto we have seen only the destructive 
side of his teaching ; but he also strove to attain a defi- 

68 Ch. ii. B9 Ch. iii. 

70 Ch. iv. 71 Ch. v. and vi. 

72 To complete this account it is necessary to add, that Mr. Newman 
has developed some portion of the critical investigations of his studies of 
Jewish history in the History of the Hebrew Monarchy, 184*7. It is a 
treatment of the Old Testament analogous to that to which we are ac- 
customed in classical history ; the answer to which would be by denying 
that the records of the Hebrew history are amenable to criticism, inasmuch 
as they, do not partake of the ordinary conditions which appertain to human 
literature. 



328 LECTUKE VIII. 

nite dogma : liis truth-searching spirit, touched by deep 
longings for the presence of God, could not rest in the 
blank of unbelief. The nature of this attempt is devel- 
oped in a work on " the Soul," 73 in which the author 
lays bare at once his psychology, his ethics, and his 
religion ; which in substance are not unlike those of 
the writer last named. He lays the foundation of reli- 
gion in the spiritual faculty, the sense of the infinite 
personality ; showing the generation of the various 
complex feelings which make up religion — awe, won- 
der, admiration, reverence — as the attributes of this 
divine Personality successively discover themselves. 74 
Holding strongly the doctrine of human freedom and 
the natural existence of a moral sense, he allows fully 
the existence of the consciousness of sin, 7& and the ne- 
cessity of spiritual regeneration ; asserting the belief in 
God's sympathy and communion with the soul, the effi- 
cacy of prayer, and the duty of encouraging holy as- 
pirations. 70 

Few more suggestive, and in many respects few 
truer, specimens exist of the analysis of those facts of 
human nature which concern the basis of natural reli- 
gion and of the spiritual life, 77 than that which he has 
offered in order to find a psychological basis for re- 
ligion. The deep spiritual longing for communion with 
God, the belief in prayer and in moral renewal, are 
evidences of a creed which separate him utterly from 
the naturalism and pantheism before described, and 
place him almost on the frontier line between Chris- 
tianity and deism. 78 And we may be permitted to ex- 
press the belief, that philosophy could not have raised 

73 The Soul, her Sorrows and her Aspirations, 1849. In the date of 
publication this preceded the Pliascs. Mr. Newman has subsequently 
published, Theism, Doctrinal, Practical, or Didactic, 1858. The most 
complete -view of'his scheme, but of course wholly favourable to him, is in 
the Westminster lieuiew, Oct. 1858. 

74 Ch. i. 75 Ch. ii. 76 Ch. iii. and iv. 

77 Ch. i. The scheme much resembles that of Schleiermacher. 

78 Deism and Unitarianism are both monotheistic ; but the latter allows 
the existence of a revelation, the former denies it. The modern school of 
Unitarians, however, nearly approach to the position of Mr. Newman. . Sec 
cud of Note 0, at the close of this book. 



LECTURE VIII. 329 

him to liis present moral standard. His spirituality is 
due to the fragments of Christianity which he has re- 
tained in his system.. It has been truly said, that the 
defenders of natural religion furtively kindle their 
torches by the light of revealed. 

In the course of this sketch of contemporary unbe- 
lief, we have gradually advanced from the forms most 
alien to faith, till we have reached the threshold of the 
Christian church. The necessity for making the narra- 
tive complete compels us to pass within its limits, and 
to indicate, though it be by a brief notice and with a 
delicate hand, the forms of the movement of free 
thought therein which have given rise to the charge of 
rationalism. This movement of thought is separated 
from those just described, in that it loyally holds that 
God has revealed His will to man ; but it varies from 
the general view of the church of Christ in reference to 
the extent and manner in which He has been pleased 
to reveal Himself; and, under the pressure of the diffi- 
culties, doctrinal or literary, which the progress of 
knowledge or of speculation has suggested, proposes to 
separate in the holy scripture, or in the immemorial 
teaching of the church, that which it regards to be the 
eternal element of revealed truth from that which it 
ventures to conceive to be temporary ; the heavenly 
treasure from the earthen vessels in which it is con- 
tained. The literary parallel to this tendency is not to 
be found in the deism of the last century, but in some 
of the schools of free thought in Germany and France 
in the present. Like them it professes to be conserva- 
tive of revelation, desiring to surrender a part in order 
to save the remainder. 79 

The movement is characterised by two forms ; the 
one philosophical, the other critical. We shall indicate 
their general character, without specifying individual 
writings. 80 

79 In many respects it resembles the " Mediation school " of Germany, 
described in Lectures VI and VII, and the modern school of the French 
protestant church, described in p. 304, and in Note 46, p. 448. 

b0 It would be more delicate perhaps to leave to the reader the applica- 
tion of these tendencies, and to omit the mention of names ; but as the 



330 LECTURE VIII. 

It is, perhaps to the influence of Coleridge, more 
than to that of any other single person, that the origin 
of this philosophical movement can be traced. 81 We 
have already 82 had occasion to mention the general de- 
sign of his philosophy. At a time when the world was 
wishing to break with the past, in politics, in literature, 
and in religion, his spirit was conservative of older 
truth, while sympathetic with that which was new. 
In looking backwards, he sought to discover what man- 
kind had meant by their beliefs ; in looking around, he 
asked what were the elements which the present gene- 
ration disapproved : and, wishing to eliminate the error 
of the past and appropriate the truth of the present, he 

practice in this work has been to give the names even in contemporary 
history, fairness requires the enumeration. The tendencies in the text 
however are rather a combination from the views of different modern 
authors, and cannot be definitely referred as a whole to any one single 
writer. Probably the reader will himself conjecture that the first tendency 
is meant in the main to describe the teaching of Mr. Maurice and Mr. 
Kingsley; the second, of Professor Jowett; the third, of some of the 
writers in Essays and Reviews. But if this be approximately true, it must 
not be supposed that every specific statement in the following account is 
intended to be charged upon these respective authors. The description is 
meant to indicate certain tendencies of free thought, of which their writ- 
ings among others seem to exhibit instances. It is always hard to judge 
of a movement which is in progress, and of which we are ourselves 
spectators. The view here taken is the result of the attempt which the 
writer of these lectures has made in his own studies, to adjust the existing 
forms of free thought into their true position in the history of speculation. 
If injustice is done, it is at least not intended. 

B1 It may be useful to draw attention to a book on the relation of Cole- 
ridge to recent theological thought, Modem Anglican Theology, by the 
Rev. J. II. Rigg, 1851. ■ The book is by a Wesleyan minister, and is 
written from that point of view. The tone of censure on the writers 
criticised is in some parts severe, and has, it is understood, caused pain to 
some of them. Apart from its tone, objection may perhaps be taken to it, 
as discovering in their works as positive teaching, doctrines which probably 
only exist as "incipient tendencies. Nevertheless it contains material sug- 
gestive of serious thought ; and certainly gives the clue to the interpreta- 
tion of many points which are usually felt to be obscure in the systems of 
several of the writers described. The author does not however appear to 
have distinguished sufficiently between the two forms of modern historical 
inquiry (sec Note 9 of these lectures, at the end of the book). He conse- 
quently makes the last of the list of writers whom he criticises (ch. xiii.) to 
be a diseiple of Coleridge; whereas he rather belongs to the other form 
of the historico-philosophical school. 

82 Page 310. 



LECTURE VIII. 331 

looked inwards into the human heart, and thought that 
he perceived a faculty there which unveiled to man the 
eternal, absolute truth, — the true, the beautiful, and 
the good ; which had been the object of search in all 
systems, the end fur which all earnest spirits had ever 
yearned. This faculty, " the reason " or intuition, thus 
became the guide, by the light of which he was able to 
thread his way through the manifold systems of thought 
of past times/ 3 Not content with applying it to other 
subjects, he carried it also into the domain of revealed 
religion. It was the engine by which he hoped to get 
a view of the truth which the ancient writers of holy 
scripture intended to convey. It would become the 
means of interpreting their thoughts, by raising the stu- 
dent to a perception of the same objects, similar in kind 
to that which they possessed. Their inspiration was 
regarded as only an elevated form of this faculty. When 
accordingly this method was applied by him to the 
study of Christianity, it did not lead him to pare down 
the supernatural by the cold interpretation of the older 
rationalism, but gave the explanation of the mysteries 
by raising men to a state where mysteries ceased to be 
such any longer. It did not pull down revelation to the 
level of the mind, but strove vainly" 4 to raise the mind 
to a level with revelation. 

If viewed in reference to cognate schools of Chris- 
tian philosophy, it bears similitude in many respects to 
some of the schools of Germany. In the analysis offered 
of the human faculties, it has much akin to Kant : in 
the deep conviction that the highest truth is revealed to 

83 The reference to Mr. J. S. Mill's dissertation on Coleridge has been 
already given (p. 310.) See also the Essay by Mr. Hort in the Cambridge 
Essays, 1856; the British Quarterly Review, Jan. 1854; Morell's History 
of Philosophy, ii. 343 seq. ; and Remusat in Revue des Deux Mondes, 
Oct. 1856. Coleridge's philosophy of religion is especially to be found in 
his Aids to Reflection; and his critical views of inspiration in the Confes- 
sions of an Inquiring Spirit. 

84 The distinctness of the "reason" (yovs) from the "understanding" 
(\6yos or dtdvoia) has been allowed in these lectures ; but only as guarantee-' 
jug the reality of the objects of intuition, not as allowing the mind to 
create a religion a priori. The objection in the text is accordingly not so 
much directed against the psychological theory as its theological application. 



332 . lecture vm. 

a faculty of faith, and in the undoubting belief in our 
own intuitions and the conviction of their reality, it re- 
sembles Jacobi and Schellinjy : in regarding the human 
reason to be the impersonal reason, the divinity in man, 
it resembles Schelling or Cousin. But it also has an 
element akin to the ancient JSTeo-Platonic philosophy of 
Alexandria. 85 This is seen both in the view taken of 
the organ of knowledge, and in the scheme of philoso- 
phy evolved by it. The intuitive reason, the divine 
faculty above described, which reveals eternal truth, is 
viewed as the divine Aoyos in man, as was taught 
by the Neo-Platonists. 86 Inspiration is the action of the 
same Aoyos. This branch of human intellect is ab- 
sorbed in divinity : a divine teacher is considered to 
exist in the human mind. 67 And as the view of the 
faculty is parallel with the teaching of this ancient 
school, so the explanations suggested of divine myste- 
ries 88 like the Trinity or Redemption are similar. These 
explanations are the mystical expressions of the thoughts 
apprehended by this faculty, when it strives to raise 
itself to oneness with the infinite object which it con- 
templates. 

These remarks will explain the philosophical system 
taught by Coleridge, and will furnish the clue to inter- 
pret the form of theological thought which has origi- 
nated from him. The parallel between his system and 

85 The sources for studying Neo-Platonism have been given in Note 10 
(p. 399). Among writers influenced by Coleridge, the element of thought 
which is derived from Neo-Platonism is stronger in the writings of Mr. King- 
sley than in those of Mr. Maurice ; but it is sufficiently observable in both to 
form a separation, by marked philosophical features, between their teach- 
ing and the system of Schleiermacher. 

60 The ASyos of Philo and of the Neo-Platonists is not to be contrasted 
with the faculty called reason by Coleridge, and vovs by other authors, but 
to be identified with it. For Philo's views, see Gfrorer, Philo, and Diihne's 
article Philo in Ersch and Grueber's Encyclopaedia: see also Jowett's 
Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, vol. i. (Essay on Philo, § 1). 

b7 The existence of a divine teacher in the human mind in the faculty 
of conscience would be generally allowed ; especially by those who adopt 
the theory of the distinctness of the faculty of reason from that of under- 
standing ; but the idea implied in the hypothesis referred to in the text is 
the existence of a faculty which is supreme over revelation. 

frW Cfr. Bioyr. Lit. p. 321, and Aids to Refection, vol. i. 204 scq. 



lecture vm. 333 

those with which it has now been compared, will be no 
less obvious in noticing the results of it. The system 
of Schleiermacher was the theological corollary from 
the theories of German philosophy above named ; and 
the school of the Alexandrian fathers was the corres- 
ponding one which resulted from the Iseo-Platonic. 89 
We should therefore expect that, if the philosophy of 
Coleridge was a mixture of the two schools above de- 
scribed, the teaching of his disciples would combine the 
two theological schools -which liowed from those sys- 
tems. Attentive consideration of the philosophical side 
of the modern movement of free thought in English 
theology will confirm this anticipation, and show that 
its chief elements are a union of these two theological 
schools. The tendency to require that the human soul 
shall apprehend divine mysteries intellectually, as well 
as feel their saving power emotionally ; the reduction 
of inspiration theologically, as well as psychologically,, 
to an elevated but natural state 90 of the human con- 
sciousness ; the inclination to regard the work of Christ 
as the office of the divine teacher to humanity, and 
human history as the longing for such a divine voice ; 
the description of the work of Christ as a divine mani- 
festation of a reconciliation which previously existed, 
instead of being the mode of effecting it ; the tendency 
to view the death of Christ by the light of the incarna- 
tion, instead of regarding the incarnation by the light 
of the atonement, the death of Christ as the solution of 
the enigma of God becoming flesh ; — these seem all to 
be corollaries from the philosophy of the iNeo-Platonists, 
and find their parallel in the school of the Alexandrian 
fathers : they express too, though with some differences, 
which will be apparent by recallingvthe remarks in a pre- 
ceding lecture/ 1 the fundamental religious conceptions 

89 On fhc school of the Alexandrian fathers, see note on p. 59. 

90 Cfr. the note ou p. 29, where we have conceded the probability that 
inspiration is, if analysed psychologically, a form of the "reason; "but 
considered it, if viewed theologically, to be an elevated state of this faculty, 
brought about by the miraculous and direct operation of God's Spirit: so 
that in this view it differs in kind, and not merely in degree, from human 
genius. 

91 Lect. VI, pp. 243-4 S. 



331: LECTUKE VIII. 

of Schleiermacher, to which we before had occasion to 
object as inverting the gospel scheme, and falling short 
of the dogmatic teaching of the revelation of God. 

The causes and character of the philosophical move- 
ment of free thought in the church will now be clear. 
"We stated that there had been also a critical tendency. 
A stricter analysis would probably subdivide the criti- 
cal movement into two ; viz. a philosophical form of it 
which examines facts, 92 and a literary one which exam- 
ines documents. 

This philosophical movement differs from the for- 
mer, in that it neither approaches the subject of inquiry 
from a lofty speculative point of view, which is intended 
to furnish a solution of the mysteries of nature and rev- 
elation ; nor seeks by means of the intuitive reason to 
penetrate beneath the doctrines of ancient teachers, and 
discover the absolute truth after which they were striv- 
ing. It rather disbelieves in the possibility of the at- 
tainment of absolute truth by the human mind, and 
regards all truth to be relative to the age in which it 
was expressed." 3 Like the former movement it pos- 
sesses a method ; but one which is tentative and critical, 
not speculative; empirical, not a priori ; founding its 
knowledge on history, not on philosophy. The mode 
of investigation is probably indirectly a result of the 
teaching of Hegel, as that which was before described 
was the result of the rival schools contemporary with 
him ; but it is the adoption of Hegel's method, and not 
of his philosophy. In this respect it may be regarded 
as a critical tendency rather than a philosophical ; but 
one which is critical of the truths and religious facts of 
revelation, and of its doctrinal teaching, and not merely 
of the documents which record it. 

Hence, when applied to revealed religion, in exam- 
ining the teaching of the scripture writers, it does not 
attempt, as the former school, to raise the mind. to a 
level with that of the writers, in order to apprehend the 

92 Cfr. note (80) on p. 329. 

93 Cfr. Note 9, at the end of the book, and the remarks in the Preface 
on the historic method of study. 



LECTURE VIII. 335 

eternal truth, which was revealed alike to their intuition 
and to ours ; but it throws itself into the circumstances 
of their age, so as to understand their meaning ; and 
tests it by the altered conceptions which the progress 
of ages has given to the world. Thus the inquirer not 
only asks what the writers meant, but views the truth 
which they taught as relative to their own age ; and 
regards the office of criticism to be, to discriminate in 
it that which is conceived to have been temporary and 
local, and that which applies to all time. This school 
thus resembles the last, in asking what the scripture 
writers meant in their own time, and what their mean- 
ing is to us ; but it seeks the answer, by using the same 
methods for the investigation which would be applied 
in ordinary literature ; not by abstract speculation, 
apart from literary study of actual documents. It 
makes the conceptions which civilization and history 
have created, to be the test for comparison, not the 
eternal truths of reason which are supposed to exist 
irrespective of civilization and history. 

We may select one illustration. In surveying the 
doctrine of the atoning work of Christ, the former 
school seeks to apprehend the absolute meaning of the 
atonement as the manifestation of an act previously 
wrought out ; and, starting with the notion of the divine 
teacher. of humanity, the Aoyos of God in Christ teach- 
ing the world, and the Aoyos m the soul of man ap- 
prehending this teaching, it construes the atoning 
work of Christ from its didactic side, as teaching man 
concerning God's love by means of a majestic example 
of self-sacrifice. The second school treats the doctrine 
historically ; and, when it has separated the apostolic 
teaching from all subsequent additions, compares this 
doctrine with the age in which it was expressed, in 
order to separate what it conceives to be the permanent 
from the temporary; and hence comes to view the 
atonement, apart from all the hallowed associations of 
propitiatory sacrifice which in the minds of the early 
converts were inseparably united with it. These ideas, 
which the doctrine of the church regards as integral 



836 LECTURE VIII. 

portions of revealed verity, it considers to be the pecu- 
liarity of the age in which the revelation was commu- 
nicated. The revealed doctrines are handled in the 
same manner as corresponding doctrines of philosophy. 
The minuteness of this method, its disposition to 
seek for truth in the investigation of details rather than 
by approaching a subject from some general principle, 
connects it with the other form of the critical tendency 
above named, which employs itself in the literary criti- 
cism of the sacred records. The main -object of this 
movement consists in examining the questions, first, of 
the origin of the canon, its grounds and contents ; next, 
the authenticity and genuineness of the books ; lastly, 
the credibility of their contents. It is plain that, how- 
ever objectionable may be the conclusion's arrived at on 
questions such as these, they are too recondite and lite- 
rary in character to possess the same doctrinal and pas- 
toral importance as those of the former kind ; though 
the alarm which they may cause will often be greater, 
because the variation from ordinary belief is more easily 
apprehended by the mind, and, being a variation in 
fact, and not only in idea, cannot be concealed by any 
ambiguity in the use of theological terms, as may be 
the case in the former instances. Yet in the' third of 
these three questions, this species of criticism may have 
a very intimate relation to practice ; for it may so affect- 
the rule of faith as to overthrow the standard on which 
we repose for the proof of revealed doctrines. In truth, 
in this branch it becomes identical with the critical 
'method before described, save so far as that examined 
the credibility of doctrines, this of facts. But in spirit 
they are identical. It proceeds upon the assumption, 
that the same critical process is applicable in the inves- 
tigation of the sacred history, as the former assumed in 
the investigation of the sacred philosophy. The atti- 
tude of both is independent : both teach that the sacred 
books are not to be approached with a preconceived 
definition of their character or meaning : preposses- 
sions are not to bar the way to the exercise of criticism. 
The difference from the first method above described 



LECTURE VIII. 337 

will be equally obvious. We may adopt the doctrine 
of inspiration as an illustration. The first view would 
approach the contents of scripture with a psychological 
theory of inspiration, as being a form of the intuition, 
which may furnish an instrument for eclecticism : the 
second and third would investigate the question empir- 
ically, and, declining on the one hand to accept the 
psychological definition just described, and on the other 
to approach Scripture with the preconceived notion of 
the nature of inspiration, as held by the Church, would 
seek to determine the notion of inspiration from the 
contents of scripture. 94 

The relation to holy scripture of the critical modes 
of inquiry will obviously be as intimate in reference to 
the standard of faith, as that of the philosophical in 
reference to doctrine. If the first of the three meth- 
ods which we enumerated 93 overlays doctrine witli 
philosophy ; the second is in danger of subtracting 
from it integral elements of its system ; and the third 
of disintegrating it by criticism, and introducing uncer- 
tainty with regard to the sacred books, which are the 
basis of doctrine. In questions relating to literary crit- 
icism, like those which are made the subject of investi- 
gation in the last-named method, it is impossible to lay 
down, so absolutely as in the two former cases, the tests 
to distinguish truth from error. The creeds are a prac- 
tical gauge in the former instances which is partly 
wanting in the latter. The greater difficulty however 
which thus appertains to the latter, of placing the 
limits to which reverent criticism may extend without 
endangering faith,- ought to generate the more solemn 
caution in its application. 

94 It is a truth indeed to which all will assent, that we must learn from 
scripture what is meant by inspiration : but the difference between the 
view here described and the view of the church of Christ is this : the 
Church discovers in scripture the statements of the writers concerning the 
reality and nature and authority of their own inspiration ; and considers 
henceforth that the character of the revelation is in its substance removed 
beyond the limits of critical investigation ; and can Only admit that an 
empirical inquiry can be useful in settling the limits to which inspiration 
extends, and determining the question as to the writings to be accounted 
the subject of it. 96 Pages 830 and 334. 

15 



338 LECTURE VIII. 

We have dwelt long upon the modern forms of free 
thought which exist within the church of Christ, be- 
cause they have a living interest for us. They meet us 
in life as well as in literature ; and we must daily form 
our judgment upon their truth and falsehood. They 
are not indeed peculiar to one church, nor to one coun- 
try ; 96 but form the. theological question which is pre- 
sented to the Christian church in this age. 

The result of our inquiries in reference to the free 
thought pf the present time has been especially to ex- 
hibit three main tendencies ; one, arising from Posi- 
tivism, a tendency to deny the possibility of revela- 
tion ; 97 a second, from an opposite philosophy, to deny. 

96 The existence of this movement in foreign churches is stated in Lect. 
VII, and also in Notes 43 and 46, pp. 444, 448. In America, besides those 
instances which have occurred in this lecture, the writings of Mr. Bushnell 
are thought to exhibit a free spirit. They however deviate very slightly 
from traditional dogmas, and may be compared with the writings of the 
late archdeacon Hare. In England, in the established church, there have 
been several works, besides those referred to in p. 330. They chiefly 
belong to the first and third classes of the three named in the text. The 
sermons of the late F. W. Robertson of Brighton, matchless in freshness, 
but most unsound in questions of vital doctrine; the sermons, &c. of the 
llev. J. Li Davies ; bishop Colcnso's Commentary on the Epistle to the 
Itomans (1861); and the Tracts for Priests awl People (1861, 62) v may be 
considered to be examples of the first type of thought ; but, if breathing 
the same spirit as Coleridge, they express his thoughts with a clearness 
which was Avanting in him. The doubts of Blanco White and Sterling ; 
and of Mr. Macnaught, in his' work on Inspiration (1856); Mr. Foxton's 
Popular Christianity (1849) ; bishop Colenso's work on the .Pentateuch 
(1862); and the Christian Orthodoxy (1857) of Dr. Donaldson, a name 
honoured by the philological student ; are instances of the third tendency 
named in- the text. A tribute of acknowledgment is nevertheless due to 
many of these writers, for the earnest and truth-seeking tone which .per- 
vades their works. The movement of free thought exists also outside the 
national church.* The recent work of Dr. S. Davidson, Introduction to the 
Old Testament (second edition) is an instance. The views however of this 
eminent biblical scholar met with so little sympathy in his own denomina- 
tion, that he was made to suffer for an earlier edition (1S56) of the same 
work, which deviated in'a much slighter degree from received opinions. 
la the Unitarian body also free thought has wrought a change. (See Note 7, 
at the end of this book.) The influence of Cousin has expelled the old utili- 
tarianism. Mr. Martineau and Mr. W. J. Fox (see his Religious Ideas, 
1849,) are illustrations of the new spirit. 

S7 Cfr. p. 312, and the note to it. Positivism only differs from Natu- 
ralism (see Note 21, at the end of this book), in that it expresses a par- 
ticular theory concerning the limits and method of science, as well as the 
disbelief in the supernatural implied by the latter term. 



LTCCTUKK VIII. 



339 



its necessity ; 98 and a third, to accept it only in part." 
These are the three tendencies by which the world and 
church of the coming generation are likely to be in- 
fluenced. Our path in life will be in a world where 
they are operating; and we shall have need to be 
armed with the whole armour of God. If we have in 
our personal history so investigated the evidences of 
our faith, as to feel that we have a well-grounded hope, 
unassailable by these doubts, we may be thankful : if 
we have gone safely through the perilous test of a care- 
ful examination of them, sometimes staggering perhaps 
in our faith, yet struggling after truth in prayerful trust 
that the. Lord would himself be our teacher, until we 
now are able to feel that we have our faith grounded 
on a Rock, — a faith which is the result of inquiry, not 
of ignorance, — let us be still more thankful, and exem- 
plify our thankfulness by trying to assist the doubter 
with our tender sympathy, and to aid him in finding 
the truth and peace which Christ has given to us. Our 
attitude in moments of peril must be that of solemn 
reliance on God's help ; and our behaviour towards 
others ought to exhibit Christian firmness, mingled with 
candour and tenderness ; evincing the moderation of 
true learning, joined to the uncompromising adherence 
to the Christian faith. 

The history now given, of the doubt which, is ex- 
pressed at present through the English language, com- 
pletes the account of the fourth great crisis of belief in 
church history ;* and with it we bring to an end our 
long survey of the history of free thought. 

Since the commencement of the second lecture, we 
have been so involved in the details of the investiga- 
tion, that, to those who have lost sight of the plan pro- 
posed in the commencement, the lectures may have 

9fi Cfr. p. 317. 

99 An instructive sketch of the tendencies of modern thought was given 
by principal Tullock, in his Inaugural Lecture at St. Andrew's, 1845. _ 

1 See p. 10. This crisis has "occupied our attention since the middle 
of Lecture III, p. 105. 



340 lecture vm. 

appeared historical rather than controversial, and 
hardly compatible with the purpose of the founder of 
the Lecture. We have been like travellers moving in 
a tangled plain, where the path at times seems lost. 
Before entering upon it, Ave took our stand, as it were, 
on an eminence ; and indicated the plan of the route ; 
pointed to the kind of territory through which it would 
conduct us, and the direction to which it would tend. 
Now, that we have at last extricated ourselves from its 
windings, and rest after our journey, let us cast a glance 
backward over its course, and see how far the result 
has verified our anticipations. Let us reconsider the 
purpose designed by this course of inquiry ; notice how 
far the promises in respect to it have been fulfilled; 
show its relation to controversial purpose ; and collect 
the moral lessons which are derivable. 

It will be remembered that we stated 2 the topic to 
be, a critical history of free thought in Europe in rela- 
tion to the Christian religion. Our criticism started 
from a Christian point of view, and assumed alike the 
miraculous character of Christianity, the exceptional 
character of the religious inspiration of the first teach- 
ers of it, and the reality of its chief doctrines. From 
this point of view we proposed to consider the attempts 
of the human mind to get free from the authority of 
the Christian religion, either by rejecting it in whole 
or in part. 3 Four great crises of faith were enumerated 
in church history ; 4 the first, the struggle, literary 
and philosophical, of early heathenism against Chris- 
tianity ; 6 the second, the reawakening of free thought 
in the middle ages ; B the third, that which appertained 
to the revival of classical literature ; 7 the fourth, to the 
growth of modern philosophy ; 8 — a series of epochs 
which exhibit the struggle of Christianity in the great 
centres of thought and civilization, ancient or modern ; 
and it was proposed that our investigation should not 

' Lect. I. page 1. 3 Page 7. 

4 Page 7. 6 This was treated .n Lecture II. 

e Lecture III. pao;c 70 seq. " Lecture III. page 92 seq. 
* Lectures IV. to VIII. 



LECTURE Vin. 341 

only contain a chronicle of tlie facts, but explain the 
causes, and teach the moral. 9 We considered that the 
causes which make thought develope into unbelief are 
chiefly two, — the emotional and the intellectual ; lu and, 
while vindicating distinctness of operation for the intel- 
lectual under certain circumstances, 11 yet we allowed 
the union of them with the moral to be so intimate, 12 
that not only must account always be taken of the lat- 
ter in estimating the unbelief of individuals, but the 
exclusive study of the former, without allowing for the 
existence of the latter, must be regarded as likely to 
lead to an imperfect and injurious idea of unbelief. 

The intellectual causes were however selected as the 
special subject of our study ; 13 partly because they have 
been much neglected by Christian writers, partly be- 
cause they are the forms which for the most part create 
the doubts which Christians encounter in the present 
age. The principal intellectual causes were consid- 
ered 14 to be, either the new material of knowledge, 
such as the physical or metaphysical sciences, which 
may present truth antagonistic to the teaching of the 
sacred literature ; or new methods of criticism, the ap- 
plication of which creates opinions differing from those 
of the traditionary belief; and, above all, the effects of 
the application of particular tests of truth, — sense, rea- 
son, intuition, feeling, — to the doctrines of revealed re- 
ligion. 

This was our plan ; and we have been employed in 
tracing the influence of these causes in generating 
doubt in the four great crises, with a minuteness which 
may almost have been, tedious ; endeavouring to supply 
the natural as well as the literary history ; analysing 
each successive step "of thought into the causes which 
produced it ; searching for them when necessary in the 
intellectual biography of individuals ; and, if not refut- 
ing results, at least laying bare by criticism the pro- 
cesses through which they were attained. At the same 
time we have attempted to show the grounds on which 

9 Page 2. 10 Page 13. » Pages 16, 17. 

13 Pages 14-17. " Page 20. :4 Pa-c 21. 



342 lecture vin. 

the faith of the church has reposed in the various ages 
of history. A defence, itself also twofold in its charac- 
ter — emotional and intellectual — has been generated by 
the attack in each of the crises, and an example thus 
furnished of the law which governs human society, — 
progress by antagonism. Permanent gain to truth was 
seen to be the result of the various controversies ; quiet 
and refreshment after the discharge of the storm had 
cleared the atmosphere from the intellectual and moral 
ills with which it was charged. 

The utility of the inquiry will now, it is hoped, be 
apparent. Though these lectures must be regarded as 
instructive for the believer, rather than polemic against 
the unbeliever, yet they are intended to serve also a 
controversial purpose. 

There are times indeed when the mere instructive- 
ness of a history, independently of practical use, is a 
sufficient justification for writing it ; — times when it is 
important to take the gauge of past knowledge as the 
condition of a step forward in the future. Those who 
are accustomed to meditate on the present age, on the 
multifarious elements which in a time of great peace 
are quietly laying the basis of great changes, and on 
the unity of intellectual condition which the interna- 
tional intercourse is creating in the world of letters, as 
really as in that of industry, will perhaps think that 
the present is such a period, when the knowledge of 
the history of the former perils of the Christian faith, 
the nature of the attack and of the defence, is itself of 
value in regard to the prospects of the future. 15 Those 
again also, who are accustomed to look at the contem- 
porary works of evidence in our own country, will de- 
plore the fact that in. many cases, however well meant 
in spirit, they are essentially deficient in a due appre- 
ciation of the precise origin and character of present 
forms of doubt, and the natural and literary history of 
doubt in general; 10 reproducing arguments unanswer- 

15 Cfr. remarks in Note 9, at the end of this volume. 

16 This remark does not apply to the principal writers (named in Note 
49), nor to the literature called out by the " Essays and Ilcvievvs " contro- 



lecture vrn. 343 

able against older kinds of doubt, but unavailing 
against the modern, like wooden walls against modern 
weapons of war. We stand in the presence of forms 
of doubt, which press us more nearly than .those of for- 
mer times, because they do not supersede Christianity 
by disbelief, but disintegrate it by eclecticism ; which 
come in the guise of erudition, unknown in former 
times, appealing to new canons of truth, reposing on 
new methods, invested with a new air. In such a mo- 
ment a reconsideration of the struggles of past ages 
becomes indirectly a contribution to the evidences, by 
supplying . the knowledge of similarity and contrast, 
which is necessary, as a preliminary, before entering 
on a new conflict. 

The dangers to faith in the present day are some- 
times exaggerated ; but there cannot be a doubt that 
we live in a time when old creeds are in peril ; when 
the doubt is the result not of ignorance, but of knowl- 
edge, and acts in the minds that are pre-eminent for 
intellectual influence, and advances with a firmness 
that is not to be repelled by force but by argument. 
It is not the duty of Christians to shut their eyes to the 
danger, like the ostrich, which supposes by burying 
her eyes in the sand to avoid the huntsman's arrow. 
There seems accordingly special reason why in such an 
age an acquaintance with the forms of doubt is requi- 
site on the part of those who have to minister the re- 
ligion which is the subject of attack. 

If accordingly a clergy is to be trained up likely to 
supply the intellectual cravings of the present day, 
they must be placed on a level with its ripest knowl- 
edge, and be acquainted with the nature and origin of 
the forms of doubt which they will encounter. The 
church has indeed a large field, where work and not 
thought is to be the engine which the clergy must use 
in their labours ; truly a home mission, where men and 
women for whom Christ died, require to be lifted out 
of their mere animalism, and taught the simplest truths 

versy ; but it applies to many of the popular manuals which are directed 
against old deist literature, and are not adapted to modern critical doubts. 



344 lecture vm. 

of Christ, and prayer, and immortality : and noble are 
the efforts that Christians have made, and are making, 
for an object so religious and philanthropic ; but there 
is a danger lest this very energy of work, which accords 
so naturally with the utilitarianism of the English char- 
acter, should lead us to forget that there is an opposite 
stratum of society, to which also Christianity has its 
message, which is only to be reached by the delicate 
gifts of intellect and by the ripest learning. 

If Christianity is to be presented to this class, 
adapted to the demands of the age so far as they are 
reasonable, but unmutilated and unaltered in its body 
of revealed doctrine, preserving in its integrity the faith 
delivered to the saints ; so that apostles might recog- 
nize it as being that which they themselves taught, and 
for which they laid down their lives ; it is necessary 
that Christian students should be trained specially for 
the work, by a learned and intelligent appreciation of 
truth, such as will create orthodoxy without bigotry, 
and charity without latitude. If we have to dread 
their going forth with hesitating opinions, teaching, 
through their very silence concerning the mysterious 
realities which constitute the very essence of Christian- 
ity, another gospel than that which was once for all 
miraculously revealed ; there is almost equal ground 
for alarm if they go forth, able only to repeat the shib- 
boleths of a professional creed, and unable to give a 
reason of the glorious hope that is in them. In the 
former case they will fail to teach historic and dog- 
matic Christianity, because they do not believe it ; in 
the latter because they do not understand its meaning 
and evidence. If they need piety as the first requisite, 
they need knowledge as the second. In certain condi- 
tions of the church, study is second only to prayer itself 
as an instrument for the Christian evangelist. 

It is hoped, therefore, that a sketch of a department 
not previously treated as a whole, may indirectly be an 
aid to the Christian faith, if it shall perform the humble 
office of supplying some elements of instruction to the 
Christian student. 



lecture vin. 345 

Such a purpose however would hardly have justified 
the introduction of the subject here. The motive which 
dictated its consideration was much more practical. It 
was hoped that the answer to many species of doubt 
would be found by referring them to the forms of 
thought or of philosophy from which they had sprung ; 
that it would be possible to perceive how they might 
be refuted, by understanding why and how men have 
come to believe them. 17 This is a study of mental 
pathology seldom undertaken. The practical aim of 
Christian writers has generally suggested to them a 
readier mode of treating the history of unbelief, by re- 
ferring its origin to intellectual pride ; and, if any mar- 
gin remained unaccounted for by this explanation, to 
refer it to an invisible agent, the direct operation of 
Satan. 18 Such a method, however true, commits the 
error, against which Bacon utters a warning, of ascend- 
ing at once' to the most general causes without interpo- 
lating the intermediate. It ignores the intellectual 
class of causes, and omits to trace the subtlety of their 
mode of manifestation ; — a problem equally interesting, 
whether they be regarded as original causes of doubt, 
or only as secondary instruments obeying the impulse 
of the emotional causes. It would have been possible 
to investigate the subject, by selecting a few leading 
instances to illustrate the natural history of doubt ; but 
the most likely mode for exhausting the subject, as well 
as for presenting it in a manner which would fall in 
with the historic tastes of the age, seemed to be, to 
treat it by means of a critical history, presenting the 
antidote by a running criticism ; and to ask, frankly 
and fully, what have been the grounds on which Chris- 
tianity has been doubted ; and what have been those 
on. which the faith of Christians in their hour of peril 
has reposed ; and then finally to gather up the lessons 
which the history itself teaches. 

17 See note on p. 22. 

18 Van Mildert so exclusively adopted this latter view in his Boyle 
Lectures, that his opponents charged him with Manichyeisin. See remarks 
on him in the Preface to this volume. 

15* 



34:0 LECTTJKE VIII. 

The inquiry has been analogous -to the study of the 
history of a disease ; and scientific rigour required that 
it should be conducted with a similar spirit of fairness 
towards those that manifest its symptoms. As the 
physiologist, who wishes to learn the laws of a disease, 
watches patiently the symptoms in the subject of it, 
not reproaching the sufferer, even if the malady be 
self-caused ; so in moral diagnosis, the student of men- 
tal and religions error must carry out his inquiries in 
the spirit of cold analysis, if he would, arrive at the real 
character of the intricate facts which he studies. . The 
candour of our examination has not been prompted by 
any spirit of indifference to truth, nor by sympathy 
with error ; but partly by the demands of historical 
accuracy, partly by deep pity for those who are the 
subject of spiritual doubts, even when the doubts are 
of their own fault. 

This view of the inquiry, as an analysis of the intel- 
lectual causes of doubt, will also explain one or two 
peculiarities in it, which, if left^unnoticed, might leave 
an impression of its inutility. 

It will be seen, for example, that in the investiga- 
tion of the natural history of doubt, and in the expla- 
nation of the antecedent metaphysical or critical ques- 
tions which have produced it, we have indicated the 
schools of thought which have created it, but 'have ab- 
stained from insisting on the inherent necessity of the 
relation which subsists between the metaphysical tests 
of truth and the religious conclusions discussed. The 
reason is, that it seemed unfit to assume a side eagerly 
in the metaphysical controversy ; and therefore, while 
showing that the use of certain grounds of belief and 
methods of inquiry has produced,. both as a matter of 
history and logic, certain species of doubt or disbelief ; 
we have not attempted to condemn the particular 
metaphysical theories on the ground of the logical con- 
sequences which are supposed to flow from them, nor 
to deny that they could be so amended, as either to 
avoid the sceptical conclusions to which our objections 
are taken, or be rendered innocuous by the co-existenCe 



LECTURE VIH. 347 

of otlier causes. Science only shows the general ten- 
dency or law of logical connection between intellectual 
causes and effects. The production of the results in 
particular cases is subject to exception from the intro- 
duction of interfering causes. 19 

Another peculiarity which appertains to the analy- 
sis of the intellectual sources of doubt, besides the 
seeming absence of invariable necessity in their opera- 
tion, might be thought to destroy the practical value 
of the inquiry ; viz. the feeling of disappointment ex- 
cited when it is perceived that they do not wholly 
explain the phenomenon, and. are merely antecedents 
or elements, not causes. This arises from the very 
nature of mental analysis. Being in nature like chem- 
ical, it aims only at the detection of the elements that 
make up the compound, and furnishes the material or 
formal causes, not the efficient. This longing of the 
mind to find causes, and to discover the original mo- 
tive power, is however a witness to the ineffaceable 
connection of the idea of power with that of will. 
And while it does not destroy the completeness, of the 
analysis, as the solution of the intellectual problem 
proposed, it nevertheless points to the instinctive wish 
of the heart to resolve the causes of doubt into some 
ultimate source in the will ; and is "thus a witness to 
the truth of the position which we have always assert- 
ed, 2 " that the intellectual causes selected for our special 
study are only one branch, and must be united to the 
emotional in order to attain a full explanation of the 
phenomenon of doubt. 

Thus the analysis . offered will have, it is hoped, a 
utility in the limited sphere which was claimed for it, 
in supplying the account of the tangled and subtle pro- 
cesses through which doubt has insinuated itself. 

What then are the lessons which the whole history 
•teaches ? To discover these was part of our original 
purpose, 21 as well as to learn the facts and find the 

10 Cfr. the notes on pp. 26 and 32. 

30 Pages 14, 71, &c. 21 Page 3. 



348 LECTURE vnr. 

causes ; to satisfy the longings of the heart, no less than 
the curiosity of the understanding. 

First, What has been the office of doubt in history ? 
Has it been wholly an injury, a chronic disease ? or' 
simply a gain ? or has it operated in both ways ? Let 
us find the answer, by testing each of these theories of 
its office by means of the facts. 

The first of the three is that which has generally 
been held within the Christian church. It dates from 
the first ages of the church, and witnesses to a valuable 
truth. The sacred care with which the Christians 
treasured the doctrine, and spurned the attempts of 
heretics to explain it away, proves the strength of the 
conviction that they possessed a definite treasure of 
divine truth, introduced at a definite period. Their 
very w T ant of toleration," the tenacity of their attach- 
ment to the faith, is a proof of their un doubting con- 
viction concerning the historic verity of the facts con- 
nected with redemption, and the definite character of 
the dogmas which interpreted the facts, in later ages 
however, the same idea of sacredness has been extended 
by the Romish church to the mass of error which Chris- 
tianity has taken up into itself in the progress of ages ; 
and in Protestant countries has led to the attempt to 
restrain the thoughts of men even on the secular sub- 
jects most remote from religion, where the ancient 
sacred literature seemed to suggest any indirect infor- 
mation. The doubt on the part of religious men, of 
any progress being made by free thought, has often 'ex- 
pressed itself too in the ■affirmation, that the history of 
unbelief shows an exact recurrence of the same doubts, 
without progress from age to age, and an intimation 
that new suggestions of doubt are only old foes under 
new faces. 

While Christians have thus generally regarded free 
inquiry in religion as wholly a loss ; freethinkers have 
taken the very opposite view, and regarded it as an . 

22 This is seen in their scrupulous care against heresy, and is attested 
by the very complaint of their opponent Cclsus. (Orig. Contr. Cels. i. 9, 
hi. 44.) 



lecture vm. 349 

unmixed gain. The distinguished writer 23 of our own 
time on the history of civilisation, whose premature 
death will prevent the fulfilment of his large design, 
has illustrated, with the clearness and grasp over facts 
which constitute some of his excellences, the office of 
scepticism, in securing for the human mind the political 
liberty and toleration which he prized so dearly. His 
central thought was, that civilisation depended upon 
the progress of intellect, 24 the emancipation of the hu- 
man mind from all authority save that of inductive 
science : he pointed out with triumphant enthusiasm, 
the services which he conceived that unbelief had per- 
formed, in rescuing Europe from degrading beliefs like 
witchcraft, and from the introduction of supernatural 
causes for natural events, and in securing in France, in 
the eighteenth century, the political rights of the lower 
orders against the claims of the church. Accord- 
ingly in his opinion scepticism was an almost unmixed 
boon. 

Those who recall the outline of the history will 
probably think that each of these views, taken alone,. is 
one-sided, and contains a partial truth. The review of 
facts shows that free thought has had an office in the 
world ; and, like most human agencies permitted under 
the administration of a benevolent Providence, its in- 
fluence has neither been unmixed evil nor unmixed 
good. It has been an evil, so far as in the conflict of 
opinions it has invaded the body of essential truth 
which forms the treasure given to the world, in the 
miraculous revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ ; but it 
has been a good, so far as it has contributed, either 
directly to further human progress intellectually and 
socially, or indirectly to bring out into higher relief 
these very truths by the progress of discussion. 

When, for example, Christian doctrine has been 
overlaid from age to age by concretions which, had 
gathered round it, as was the case previously to the 

23 H. T. Buckle, the news of whose death, at the end of May 1862, had 
just reached England when this lecture was delivered. 

24 History of Civilisation, vol. i. ch. iv. 



350 



LECTTTKE Vni. 





Reformation," it lias been free thought which has at- 
tacked the system, and, piercing the error, has removed 
those elements which had been superadded. Or, when 
tiie church has attempted to fetter human thought in 
other departments than its own proper domain of reli- 
gion, as when the ecclesiastical authorities disgraced 
themselves by vetoing the discoveries of Galileo, 20 it has 
been to free thought that we owe the emancipation of 
the human mind. Or, when the church, linked itself in 
alliance with a decaying political system, as in the last 
century in France, it was free thought that recalled to 
it the lesson to render to Caesar the things that were 
Caesar's, and to God the things that were God's. It is 
instances like these, where free thought has been the 
means of making undoubted contributions to human 
improvement, or of asserting toleration, which have led 
writers to describe it as almost innocuous, and hastily 
to regard the ratio of the emancipation of the human 
mind from the teaching of the priesthood to be the sole 
measure of human improvement. 

In many instances also, free thought has indirectly 
contributed to intellectual good, in points where it has 
run a greater risk, than in those just cited, of trespassing 
upon the sacred truths of religion ; instances, in fact, 
where the benefit resulting has been owing to the. over- 
ruling Providence which brings good out of evil, rather 
than to any direct intention on the part of those who 
have exercised it. Examples are to be found in those 
epochs, when some sudden outburst of knowledge com- 
pelled a reconsideration of old truths by the light of 
new discoveries. The awakening of the mind in the 
middle age, the Renaissance, the advance of modern 
science, the birth of literary criticism, are instances of 
such moments, wherein free inquiry has been a neces- 
sity forced on the mind by outward circumstances, not 
self-prompted. This attitude of inquiry, this exercise 




2o History of Civilisation, ch. xii and xiii. 
. * 8 An article by a distinguished scientific writer appeared in the North 
British Review for Nov. 18(50 ; in which the question of Galileo's trial was 
discussed in reference to the recent re-examination of the subject. 



LECTURE VIII. 351 

of a provisional doubt, was not, like that described, 
called forth merely by the circumstance that religion 
had received additions from error, but must have arisen 
even if the faith once delivered had been preserved mi- 
corrupted. For religion being a fixed truth, while truth 
in other departments is progressive, it would have been 
impossible to avoid the necessity of comparison of it 
with them from time to time, in those spheres where it 
intersected the field occupied by them. 

Such examples, indeed, are not restricted to Chris- 
tian history, but are general facts of the history of the 
human mind. The fifth century B.C. was such an 
epoch in Greece ; 27 when various causes, social and in- 
tellectual, created a. sudden awakening of the human 
mind to reconsider its old beliefs, and find a home for 
the new views of nature and of the world which were 
opening. The free thought of the Sophists was the 
scepticism of doubt., of distrust ; the proposal to sur- 
render, to destroy the old : the free thought of Socrates 
was the scepticism of inquiry, the attempt to reconsider 
first principles, to rebuild truth anew. In all such mo- 
ments, investigation is indirectly the means of stimulat- 
ing knowledge. The history of the progress of it, in 
reference to the difficulties which have beset the Chris- 
tian church, shows us that the epochs of doubt have not 
generally been produced by unbelief taking the initia- 
tive in attacking old truths without some fresh stimulus, 
and repeating old objections so as to exhibit perpetually 
recurring cycles of unbelief. We have rather seen that 
doubt is reawakened by the introduction of new forms 
of knowledge ; and though old doubts recur, yet that 
they come arrayed in a new garb, suggested by different 
motives, deduced from fresh premises, and accompanied 
by doubts of a new kind before 'unknown. In a practical 
point of view T , frequently they may be thought not to 
differ widely in appearance from old ones, and to pre- 
sent similar effects as well as forms ; but in a scientific 
one, they ought not to be confounded, inasmuch as they 

27 Cfr. Grote's History of Greece, vol. viii. ch. lxvii ;. Lewes, History-of 
Philosophy (chapter on Sophists); Grant, Aristotle 's Etltics y vol. i; essay ii. 



If 









352 LECTUKE vni. 

do not present identity of cause. There lias been a slow 
but real progress in knowledge, and a slow but real 
change in the modes of applying it to Christian reli- 
gion. The effect of the defence ottered for Christianity 
is equally powerful in leaving its impress on subsequent 
doubt, as the progress of knowledge is in suggesting 
novelty of form. The sphere is narrowed, or the direc- 
tion changed. If thought seems to have come round in 
its revolution to the same spot in its orbit, it will be 
found to be moving not on a circle, but on a spiral ; 
slowly but surely approaching a little nearer to the 
great central truth, toward winch it is unconsciously 
attracted. 

The value of the free inquiry in this latter class of 
cases is not in the process, but in the results; in pro- 
ducing the branch of theology which sets forth the evi- 
dences of revealed truth. We have previously had 
occasion to imply that the Christian evidences are too 
often regarded as mere weapons of defence ; like the 
battle-fields of history, monuments of the struggle of 
evil. Being a form of truth which, would never have 
been called forth if the church had not been attacked, 
the apologetic literature is usually regarded, either as 
obsolete because controversial, or as useless for believers. 
Yet truths brought to light by it, though dearly pur- 
chased, are a real contribution to Christian knowledge. 
As miracles are a part of Christianity as well as an evi- 
dence, so apologetic literature, while useful in argu- 
ment, serves the purpose of instruction as well as of 
defence. 28 The controversy with heresy or unbelief has 
caused truths to be perceived explicitly, which other- 
wise would have been only implicit ; and has illustrated 
features of the Christian doctrine which might other- 
wise have remained hidden. Though these good results 
have not been designed by unbelievers, and cannot 
therefore warrant the claim asserted for scepticism, that 
it is always innocuous, nor be set down to the credit of 
free thought as a spirit; yet they evidence the value 

28 See above, Lecture IV. p. 159. 



lecture vin. 353 

of it as a method ; the free thought, that is, which is 
inquiry and consideration, not that which is disbelief. 

While therefore fully appreciating the reverent wish 
of Christian men to defend the truth with sacred tena- 
city, which leads them to regard all doubt with alarm ; 
Ave can frankly allow the function and use of the phe- 
nomenon of doubt in history, when viewed as an intel- 
lectual fact. The use of it is to test all beliefs, with the 
view of bringing out their truth and error. But the 
good result has often, we perceive, been undesigned. 
It has frequently too been dearly bought, attained at an 
incalculable spiritual loss to the souls of those who have 
doubted. The result accordingly leaves untouched the 
responsibility of the doubter, and only shows the use 
which an allwise Providence makes free thought sub- 
serve in the general progress of the world. 

But the heart asks a further moral. Though it de- 
rives satisfaction from perceiving that even features of 
history which seem the darkest, and moments the most 
perilous, bear witness to the presence of a benevolent 
Creator, who overrules all for the improvement of man 
and the progress of the church ; it still claims to know 
what those limits are, where doubt must expire in awe, 
and speculation in adoration. It longs to exercise 
inquiry, and yet retain the Christian faith. It asks 
earnestly what does the history teach us concerning the 
doubts that are most likely to meet us in our lifetime, 
and what lessons are supplied by it in reference to the 
best mode at once of maintaining our own faith, and of 
leading those who doubt to the faith which we receive. 
The materials are supplied for an answer to these ques- 
tions ; probably even the materials for the final answ r er 
which the church can give to them. 

We venture not to utter predictions in reference to 
the future ; but the thought is interesting and solemn, 
that there seems some reason to believe that the wea- 
pons which doubt on the one hand, and religion on the 
other, must use in the final adjudication of their claims, 
at least in reference to all fundamental questions, are 
already in men's hands. Though our express denial 




'654: LECTUKE VIII. . . 

that doubt perpetually recurs in cycles might cause it 
to be supposed that we should be inclined to anticipate 
the existence of future crises of faith ; yet we have re- 
marked that such crises are always produced by the 
opening of some unexplored field of knowledge, the in- 
troduction of a collection of new ideas or of a new 
spirit excited by new ideas, on subjects traversed either 
by the Christian religion, or by the Christian inspired 
books. A survey of the present state of knowledge 
would probably lead us to think that no field lies un- 
examined from which such new material can hereafter 
come. The physical sciences which, by the discovery 
of an order of nature and general laws of causation, 
have heretofore suggested difficulties in reference to 
miraculous interposition, and, by means of the discov- 
eries in astronomy and geology, have come into conflict 
with the ancient Hebrew cosmogony, are not likely to 
suggest fresh ones distinct in kind from the past. If 
there be not ground for discouragement in science, nor 
lor doubting that the present state of it, which seems to 
offer employment for originality of mind rather in track- 
ing old principles into details than in ascending to new 
ones, 29 is merely a temporary one, destined to pass away 
when some happy guess shall reveal the highest laws 
which now baffle- inquiry ; yet it is not probable that 
such an advance will traverse the province of religion. 
The survey of those regions where discovery seems 
most hopeful, will explain the reason of this assump- 
tion. 

If the present examination of some of the subtler 
forms of matter or of force, 30 and of their existence in 
other globes, of the solar system than our own, should 
hereafter lead to a generalization which shall extend 

29 Cfr. Mill's Logic, vol. i. book ill. ch. xiii. § 7. 

3,J The allusion is to the discoveries, such as that of Kirchoff, of the 
existence of some of the material elements in the solar atmosphere, which 
exist in our own ; also of the connexion between the periodic recurrence 
of the solar spots, and terrestrial magnetism ; and especially to the discus- 
sion on "the correlation of physical forces," contained in Mr. Grove's 
work, and in Sir II. Holland's Essays (essays i. and iL), reprinted from the 
Edinburgh Review, July 1858 and Jan. 1851). 



LECTURE VIII. 355 

natural philosophy as widely beyond its present limits 
as the discovery made by Newton beyond those of his 
predecessors, yet these discoveries can have no bearing, 
favourable or unfavourable to religion, distinct in kind 
from that of present ones. If even a still mightier 
stride should be taken, and physiology be able to lay 
bare the subtle processes through which mind acts on 
body ; 3l yet the difficulty would only be an enhanced 
form of that which is already used to discredit the spir- 
ituality and immortality of the soul. 

• If we pass from the physical to the moral or meta- 
physical sciences, there is still less ground for expecting 
progress. True so far as they go, they offer no oppor- 
tunity for enlargement, unless perhaps a more careful 
analysis, by means of the fertile principle of mental as- 
sociation, 32 should cast light on the sensational source 
of ideas and the physiological side of mind ; and even 
this would leave the independent evidence of the men- 
tal data, moral and intellectual, of religion, on the same 
basis as at present. Critical science again has attained 
such perfection, that there is no possibility of an entirely 
new range of critical thought springing up in reference 
to. religion, such as arose when the German mind was 
creating the science of historical criticism. 

Thus, though each branch of science, — physical, 
metaphysical, and critical, — offers grounds of hope to 
the labourer, there is no reason to fear that sceptical 
difficulties will be generated by any of them, distinct in 

31 The discoveries of the distinction between the sensational and motor 
nerves, by Sir C. Bell ; of the phenomena of reflex action, by Dr. M. Hall ; 
of the connexion of the same phenomena with those of sensation, by Dr. 
Carpenter ; and the identification of the centres of conscious activity with 
separate departments of the cerebral organism, by Dr. Laycock ; are in- 
stances of hints toward the solution of this problem. Many continental 
physiologists, such as Midler, Carus, Wagner, and Brown-Sequard, have 
worked toward the same end. J. F. Herbart in Germany, and Mr. II. 
Spencer in England, are writers who have approached the psychological 
problem from the physiological side. 

32 Bayn's Senses and Intellect, 1855 ; Emotions and Witt, 1859; and 
Spencer's Principles of Psychology, 1855 ; are works in which analysis of 
this character is carried farther than in former works. A popular view of 
past attempts of this kind is given in an article on Mental Association, in 
the Edinburgh -Review for Oct. 1859. 



356 lectuee vm. 

kind from those which now exist. And a similar line 
of argument will suggest, that there is little reason to 
hope, on the other hand, for enlargement of the grounds 
of the evidence of natural and revealed religion. If 
this be the case, the materials are accordingly sup- 
plied, from which thoughtful students must make up 
their minds finally on the questions at issue. Indeed 
the survey of modern thought which we have already 
made, will have shown that men are already taking 
their place in hostile array ; and will have revealed 
differences so fundamental in reference to religion, on 
subjects where no further evidence can be offered, that 
there can be little reason to hope for the alteration of 
the state of parties to the end of time. Never was 
there an age wherein Christianity had so real, so potent 
an effect as the present ; yet never was there one which, 
while so largely moulded by it, was so really hostile to 
it. 33 It is the hostility, not of opposition which regards 
Christianity as false, but of the criticism which views it 
as obsolete, and considers it to be one phase of the 
world's religious thought, the eternal truths of which 
may be assimilated without the historic and dogmatic 
basis under which its originators conceived it. Though 
the special forms of doubt that now exist derive their 
lineage, philosophical and historical, from the modern 
German and French sources, which we have studied in 
the last two lectures ; yet it is in an older age of Euro- 
pean history that the nearest general parallel to the 
present state of feeling may perhaps be found ; and 
there is a deep truth in the analogy which the learned 
and excellent critic, 31 who has recently made a special 
study of the struggle of classical heathenism against 
Christianity, has pointed out, between the feeling of 
philosophers in the second and third centuries of the 
Christian era and in the present time. 

33 An example is seen in Strauss. No one can be more inimical to the 
dogmatic and historical Christianity of the church than he ; yet he asserts 
firmly that Christ and Christianity is the highest moral ideal to which the 
world can ever expect to attain. {Soliloquies, E. T. 1845, partii. § 27-30.) 

3 '' E. de Pressensu. Histoirc 2 e Serie, ii. 524. 



lecture vin. 357 

Amid very wide differences in tone and learning, 
there is this fundamental agreement between the age 
which was enriched with the accumulated learning of 
the old civilization, and the present, enriched with that 
of the new. There is the same spirit of naturalism ; the 
same indisposition to rise to the belief of the interfe- 
rence of Deity ; the same feeling of contempt for posi- 
tive religions ; the same sensation of heart-weariness, — 
the utterance as it were of the desponding feeling, 
" Who will show us any good ? " the same lofty theory 
of stoic morality, and disposition to find perfection in 
obedience to nature's laws, physical and moral ; the 
same approximation to the Christian ideal of perfection, 
while destroying the very proof of the means by which 
it is to be acquired. And if it be true that the state of 
intellectual men presents so marked a parallel, so in like 
manner the study of the arguments by which the early 
fathers in their apologetic treatises met the doubts of 
such minds, becomes a question. of great practical as 
well as literary interest. 35 

"What. then are the doubts which are most likely to 
meet us, either insinuating themselves into our own 
minds, or offering their difficulty to those who intend 
to become ministers of Christ ? and what are the means 
by which they may be most effectually repelled ? 

The main difficulties may be summed up as three : — 

(1) The question of the relation of religion, and 
more particularly of Christianity, to the human soul ; 
whether religion is anything but morality, and Chris- 
tianity its highest type. 

(2) The question of the relation of the work of 
Christ to the human race, whether it involves a secret 
mystery of redemption known only to God, and hidden 
from the ken of man, except so far as revealed; or' 
whether it is to be measured by the human mind, and 
reduced to the proportions which can be appropriated 
or understood by man. 

(3) The question of the relation of the Bible to the 
human mind, whether it is to be that of a friend or a 

85 Fressense has devoted attention to this point, (vol. ir. book iv.) 



358 LECTURE VIII. 

master ; and its religious teaching to be a record or an 
oracular authority. 

The history of recent doubt has brought before us 
some whose minds doubt wholly of the supernatural. 
In the case of a few of these, but only of a few, the doubt 
has passed into positive unbelief; their convictions 
have become so fixed that they manifest a fierce spirit 
of proselytism, and can dare to point the linger of scorn 
at those who still believe in the unseen and super- 
natural relations of God to the human soul. Between 
these and religious men the struggle is internecine. 
We can have no sympathy with them : we can rejoice 
that they retain a moral standard, where they have re- 
jected many of the most potent motives which support 
it ; but must tremble lest their unbelief end in thorough 
animalism ; lest Epicureanism be their final philosophy. 
But there are many more whose tone is that of sadness, 
not of scorn ; the temper of Ileracleitus, not Democ- 
ritus ; whose souls feel the longing want which nothing 
but communion with a Father in heaven can supply, 
but who are so clouded with doubt, and retain so faint 
a hold on the thought of God'.s interference, and On the 
reality of the supernatural, that they are Unable to soar 
on the wings of faith beyond the natural, either ma- 
terial or spiritual, up to the throne of God. 

The history of such men generally tells of' some 
mighty mental convulsion, which has driven them from 
their anchor-ground of belief. Sometimes the study 
of science, as it is seen gradually to absorb successive 
ranges of phenomena into the regular operation of uni- 
versal law, until it removes God far away, and creation 
seems to move on without His interference, has been 
the cause : — in other cases philanthropic pity, musing 
on the sad catastrophes which daily occur, when the 
happiness and lives of innocent human beings are for 
ever destroyed by the stern unyielding action of na- 
ture's laws, leading the heart to doubt God's nearness, 
and the fact of a special Providence: — in other cases' 
again, the study of the human mind in history, and the 
perception of the maimer in which the gradual growth 



lecture vnr. ooy 

of knowledge seems to lessen the region of the super- 
natural, until the mind doubts whether the supernatural 
itself is not the mere idolum trihus, a mere giving ob- 
jective being to a subjective idea, a truth relative mere- 
ly to a particular stage of civilization. Such causes as 
these, producing a convulsion of feeling, may form the 
sad occasion from which the soul dates its loss of the 
grasp which it has heretofore had over the belief of 
God's nearness, and of religion ; and mark the moment 
from which it has gradually doubted whether anything 
exists save eternal law ; or whether a personal Deity, 
if he exist, really communes with man ; whether, in 
short, religion be anything but duty, and Christianity 
anything but the noble type of it to which one branch 
of the Semitic people was happy enough to attain. 

Doubts like these, where they exist in a high-prin- 
cipled and delicate mind, .are the saddest sight in 
nature. The spirit that feels them does not try to 
proselytise ; they are his sorrow : he wishes not others 
to taste their bitterness. Any one of us who. may have 
ever felt chilled, as the thought insinuated itself, of the 
remote possibility of the perception of the machine-like 
sweep of universal law removing our belief of the guar- 
dian care of Him to whom alone we can fly for refuge 
when heart or flesh faileth, as to a Father as infinite in 
tenderness as in condescension, the friend of the friend- 
less : — whoever has known the bitterness of the thought 
of a universe unguided by a God of justice, and without, 
an eternity wherein the cry of an afflicted creation shall 
no longer remain unavenged, has known the first taste 
of the cup of sorrow which is mournfully drunk by 
spirits such as we are describing. And who that has 
known it would grudge the labour of a life, if by exam- 
ple, by exhortation, by prayer, he might be the means 
of rescuing one such soul ? 

Yet no task is so hard ; argument well nigh fails, 
because the doubts refer to those very ultimate facts 
which are usually required as data for argument. If 
intellectual means are sought for remedy, it is philos- 
ophy to which we must look to supply it; — the philos- 



360 LECTURE VIII. 

ophy which recalls man to the natural realism -of the 
heart, to the simple unsophisticated trust in the reality 
of the spiritual intuitions", not as derived from sense 
only, nor merely as necessary forms of thought, but as 
the vision of a personal God by the human soul. 

If however there is any field which requires the 
presence of moral means, it is this : and we who believe 
in a God who careth so much for man that He spared 
not His own Son for our sakes, may well look upwards 
for help in such instances ; in hope that the infinite 
Father, whose love overlooks not one single solitary 
case of sorrowing doubt, will condescend to reveal him- 
self to all such hearts which are groping after Him, if 
haply they may find Him. The soul of such doubters 
is like the clouded sky : the warming beams of the Sun 
of righteousness can alone absorb the mist, and restore 
the unclouded brightness of a believing heart. 

The instances however are rare, where we meet with 
a chaos of faith, half pantheism, half atheism, such as 
that which we have just described. The great majority 
of doubters are persons who not only retain a tenacious 
grasp over monotheism, but even possess a love for 
Christianity. Their love is however for a modified form 
of it, different from that which the apostles taught. 
They cordially believe that God cares for man, and that 
He has spoken to man through His Son. They accept 
the superhuman, perhaps the divine, character of Christ ; 
but they consider his life to be a mere example of un- 
rivalled teaching, and of marvellous self-sacrifice ; his 
death the mere martyrdom that formed the crowning 
act of majestic self-devotion. God's gift of His son is 
accordingly, in their view, to reconcile man to God ; to 
remove the obstacle of distrust which prevented man 
from coming to God, by showing forth the love which 
God already bore to the world ; not to remove obstacles, 
known or unknown, which prevented God from showing 
mercy to man. Christ is accepted as a teacher, and as 
a king, but not as a priest. His work is viewed as 
having for its purpose, to inculcate and embody a 
higher type of morality, not to work out a scheme of. 



LECTURE VIIL 



361 



redemption. The ethical element of Christianity be- 
comes elevated above the dogmatic. The sermon on 
the mount is regarded as the very soul of Christ's teach- 
ing. And in looking forward to the future of Chris- 
tianity, the Christian religion is considered likely to 
become the religion of the world, merely because it will 
have ceased to be the religion of form and dogma, and 
become the highest, type of ethics. 

Yiews like these are common, and their compatibil- 
ity with Christianity is defended in different ways :— 
sometimes by the bold attempt, as in the speculations of 
the Tubingen school, to prove that primitive Christian- 
ity was such a religion as that just described ; that the 
dogmatic Christianity of the early fathers was the addi- 
tion made by philosophy to the iirst doctrine, the idola 
theatri, which haunted the minds of the early teachers ; 
and that the books of the New Testament, to which we 
appeal to prove the contrary, belong to a later date 
than that usually assigned :— sometimes, with less con- 
sistency, admitting the antiquity of the dogmas, by 
representing that we can penetrate into the philosophy 
of the apostolic doctrine, and express in modern phrase, 
more clearly than in the ancient, the meaning which 
was intended to be conveyed : — at other times, by re- 
garding all truth as relative to its age, and supposing 
that Christ's work was seen by the light of the sacrificial 
and Messianic ideas common in the apostolic times. 

Connected with this fundamental disagreement with 
the ordinary teaching of the Christian church, on the 
central question of Christ's work and the nature of 
Christianity, is the cognate question concerning the re- 
lation of the Bible as a rule of faith. Its superiority to 
ordinary books is admitted, as cordially as the superior- 
ity of Christ's work to that of ordinary beings ; but. the 
religious contents of it, not to speak of the literary, are 
criticised, not indeed in a polemical, but in an indepen- 
dent spirit ; and are measured in the manner just de- 
scribed, and approved or. rejected in accordance with it. 

Thus these two questions, — the atoning work of 
Christ, and the authority of the scriptures, — are the 
10 



3G2 LECTURE^ VIII. 

two forms of doubt which are most likely to meet us in 
the present age. 

The expression of them in the clergy of any particu- 
lar church may of course, if it be deemed necessary, be 
prevented by political means. A church, if regarded 
merely in a worldly point of view, is a political as well 
as a spiritual institution, where the members cede some- 
what of individual freedom for the good of the whole ; 
a compact where certain privileges and remunerations 
are granted, in return for the communication of certain 
kinds of instruction, and the performance of certain 
offices : and no one can object that the terms of a treaty 
be maintained ; but the prevention of the expression of 
doubt is not the extinction of the feeling. And such 
acts of repression cannot reach the laity of the church, 
even if they touch the clergy. The inquiry accordingly 
here intended, as to the means for repressing such 
doubts, does not descend to the political question, but is 
a spiritual one ; viz. if these doctrines are contrary to 
Christ, how can such thinkers be directed by moral 
means to the truth which we believe ? or what reason 
can we give for the hope that is in us, which leads us to 
decline yielding up one iota of dogmatic Christianity to. 
them ? 

The history of evidences offers a series of experi- 
ments, in which we may find an answer to these ques- 
tions, by studying the different methods adopted in 
various centuries for spreading Christianity. 

In the earliest age of the church, previous to the 
establishment of Christianity as the state religion, 'we 
observe the unaided appeal to argument, and especially 
the abundant use made of the internal evidence, or 
philosophical argument concerning the excellence of 
Christianity, as a means for arresting attention, prepar- 
atory to the presentation of the external and historic 
proof. J0 In the long interval of the middle ages, the- 
church was able to supplement or supersede argument' 
by force ; yet it must be admitted that the political and 

" Cfr. Pressure, vol. iv, book iv. 161, 521 



LECTUEE VIII. 363 

intellectual condition of the European mind was then, 
to a large extent, such as to receive benefit from the 
imposition of an external rule of religious authority and 
doctrine, in the same manner that individuals, when in 
a state of childhood, need a rule, not a principle; a 
law, not a reason. 37 This method however was unsuited 
when the mind of Europe awoke, and when free thought 
could no longer be suppressed by force. 

The history of evidences since the spread of modern 
unbelief exhibits not only the return to the ancient 
Christian weapon of argument instead of force ; but not 
unfrequently to the ancient mode of presenting • the 
philosophical proof prior to the historical. 

An attempt of this kind was intermingled with the 
English school of evidences of the last century ; and the 
argument of analogy used by Butler, if viewed as con- 
structive, and not refutative, may be considered to have 
for its object to prepare the mind for accepting revealed 
religion, by first showing the probability of it on the 
ground of its similarity to nature. (48) And in the 
German movement, where the doubt thrown by criti- 
cism over the historical evidences even still more com- 
pelled the resort to the philosophical argument on the 
part of those who strove to defend the faith, we have 
seen various attempts to reconstruct Christianity from 
the philosophical side. 3 * Both methods, the philosoph- 
ical and the historical, have had their place ; but their 
use has varied with the wants of the age. In propor- 
tion as the pressure of doubt left less opportunity for 
the constraining force of the latter, the persuasiveness 
of the d priori moral argument has been used. 

The history of the means which have been successful 
in removing doubts lends little support to the opinion 
which would save the faith by the, sacrifice of the rea- . 
son, or would imperil the truth of religion by throwing 
discredit on the immutability of moral distinctions, 

37 This is the view at which Guizot arrives; Hist, de la Civil, lecon v, 
vi, x. 

* 8 " E. g. in Kant, Jacobi, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. See Lectures 
VI. and VII. 



364 LECTURE YIH. 

perceived by the conscience which Providence has 
placed in the hnman mind ; to which the great writers 
on evidence have been wont to make their appeal ; and 
which they have justly perceived must lie at the basis 
of the evidences themselves. " If the light that is in 
thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! " 

The two periods in church history among those here 
named, which offer most instruction to us in conse- 
quence of affording examples of the same class of diffi- 
culties as those which we encounter, are, the struggle 
in the early centuries, and that in Germany during the 
present. The line of argument which was used in the 
former of these crises is seen in the Alexandrian school 
of the fathers in the third century, and that used in 
the latter, in the school of Schleiermacher. The study 
of the life and mental development of Schleiermacher's 
disciple, Neander, would be in this view one of the most 
valuable in history. 39 He was himself led by the 
mercy and providence of God to the knowledge of 
Christ ; his own spirit was rescued from doubts such as 
we describe ; his life was spent in trying to save 
others from the like difficulties, and to plant their feet 
upon the rock upon which he himself stood : and it 
is only the secrets of the great day that will declare 
the number of the souls that were led by his teaching 
to find Christ and salvation. 

In both these periods the method adopted for re- 
commending Christianity was, to carry out the plan 
used by St. Paul at Athens, 40 to lay a basis for the 
proof of it by developing the moral and philosophical 
argument. 

In the Alexandrian period the method used was, 
to show that all former religions, all former philosophies, 
were not unmixed error, but contained the germ of 
truth, which Christianity gathered into itself; to ex- 
hibit Christianity as the fulfilment in the field of his- 
tory of the world's yearnings, and thus to awaken the 4 

39 Referer.cvs for the study of Neander's life are given in a note on 
page 250. , 

40 See Acts.xvii. 22-31. 



LECTURE vni. 365 

response of the heart to the narrative of its message. 41 
Reasons, to which allusion has before been made, 42 may 
have lessened the utility at that period of the positive 
evidence, which proves the fact that a Redeemer had 
been given ; but we cannot doubt that, independently 
of this circumstance, a deep philosophical reason sug- 
gested the stress which was laid on the moral argu- 
ment, on account of its suitability for convincing the 
opponent; — a reason indeed to which the history of 
some of the fathers gave a personal force in the fact 
that it was by this manner that they had themselves 
been led to accept of Christianity. 43 

In the German period the same method has been 
adopted, with the corresponding alterations suggested 
by modern philosophy. Not to mention the instructive 
attempts of the school of Kant to find a philosophy 
from the subjective side of religion, in the denial of its 
possibility if attempted on the objective, and to exhibit 
the limitations of the human mind in speculating on 
the subject of religious method; nor again to mention 
the bold attempt of Hegel, to which we have previously 
taken exception as opposing the simplicity that is in 
Christ, to work out this forbidden problem, and find a 
philosophy for Christianity on the objective side: we 
allude to that which has marked the disciples of Sclilei- 
ermacher to find it on the subjective as a life, and fact, 
and doctrine, which fulfils the yearnings of the individ- 
ual heart. 

In pursuing a method of this kind, the appeal must 
be made to the inextinguishable feeling of guilt; to 
our personal consciousness of a personal judge ; our 
terror at the sense of justice; our penitence for our 
own ill deserts ; the deep consciousness of the load of 
sin as an insupportable burden from which we cannot 
rescue ourselves ; and to the guilt of it which separates 

41 Cfr. Presscnse on Clement and Origen, Hist. iv. pp. 203, 3G0, and 
the references there given. 

42 Page 13. 

43 E. g. Justin Martyr, who gives the account of his own conversion to 
Christianity in the introduction to the Dialogue with Trypho ; and Clement 
of Alexandria. 









366 LECTURE vni. 

between us and God, as a bitter memory that we are 
powerless to wipe away." "When these facts are not 
only established as psychological realities, but appro- 
priated as personal convictions, then the way is pre- 
pared for the reception of Christianity. The heart, by 
realising the personality of God, is at once elevated 
above naturalism or pantheism. It feels that in Christ's 
incarnation it finds God near, the infinite become finite, 
God linked to the heart of a man ; and in his atone- 
ment it finds God merciful. Its deep instinct leads it 
to reject the theories which would pare down the mar- 
vel of that mystery. Its consciousness of guilt tells it 
of an obstacle which it cannot believe to lie merely in 
itself, but attributes to the mind of the infinite Spirit 
which it wants a method for removing. No mere ex- 
ample of majestic self-sacrifice proclaiming God's love 
to man suffices to solace its sorrows. Some mighty 
process, wrought out between the Son and the almighty 
Father, is instinctively felt to be necessary, as the 
means by which God can be just and yet the justifier of 
the sinful. And when philosophy has thus prepared 
the heart by its appeal to the yearnings of the soul, and 
brought it to long for the very remedy which Chris- 
tianity supplies ; then the historic argument can be 
properly introduced, to afford the solid comforting as- 
surance that the remedy wanted has really been given ; 
that miracles and prophecy are divine evidences, attest- 
ing the truth of the claim that certain teachers at a 
particular period received superhuman aid to reveal 
certain religious truths. (49) 

The work of persuasion however is not yet com- 
pleted ; for, ere the heart can fully trust with adoring 
thankfulness, there are no less than three questions 
which must still be answered, if the object be to direct 
doubt instead of suppressing it, and to lead a sinner to 
Christ by the bands of love. 

The first will be the literary one, as to the trust- 

44 Cfr. Lcct. I. p. 28. Suggestions on this point are given in Miller's 
Hampton Zcrtnrcs, 1817. u The Divine Authority of Holy Scripture as- 
serted from its adaptation to Human Nature." 



lecture vm. 36 T 

worthiness of the books of the New Testament, which 
are the record of this teaching. 

The second, the inquiry into the fact whether the 
boohs teach, and whether the early church taught, dog- 
matic Christianity as the church now presents it. 

The third, though of such a nature as in a great 
degree to be suppressed by the claim of authority al- 
ready conceded to the apostolic teachers, may still 
rise up to harass the mind if a further answer be not 
supplied : it refers to the reason that we possess for 
believing, that if these teachers asserted such truths 
as dogmatic Christianity, and especially vicarious atone- 
ment, these doctrines were a real verity, and not mere- 
ly a passing form under which the truth presented 
itself to their minds, to be explained away by after 
ages into less mysterious and more self-evident truths. 

The first of these questions, which concerns the 
trustworthiness of the books, has been most thoroughly 
tested by the historical criticism of Germany. The 
data are thus presented for forming a final decision, 
which in the opinion of most persons will probably be 
widely different from that which has been arrived at 
by critics in that country. Yet, supposing we should 
meet with a doubter who accepted all the views of the 
Tubingen school, 45 there are nevertheless four books of 
the New Testament, the genuineness of which the most 
extravagant criticism fully admits ; viz. the Epistles of 
St. Paul to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the two 
to the Corinthians. These four would be sufficient to 
establish the main articles of dogmatic teaching as pre- 
sented in the creeds of the Christian church, and the 
main outline of Gospel and Jewish history as facts on 
the reality of which St. Paul and his converts relied, 
and for which .he was staking his life. Suppose the 
Gospels and the Acts 45 involved in the historic uncer- 

45 See above, p. 277. 

46 The question of the attacks made on the historic character of the 
Acts was not noticed in Lecture VII. The statement of the difficulties 
which have given rise to them may be seen in Baur's Paulus, do.r Apostel 
Jesu GhristL 1845, and in an article in the National Review, No. 20, for 



368 LECTURE Till. 

tainty wliicli tliese critics have attributed to them ; yet 
we possess in the Gralatians the outline of the life of 
Paul, the statement of the reason why Paul accepted a 
religion which he detested. The incomparable argu- 
ment of Lyttleton" irrefragably proves his honesty. 
He cannot have been a deceiver. Let the reader of the 
Galatians say if he was deceived. The two Epistles to 
Corinth attest the history of the early church ; the Epistle 
to the Romans its dogmatic beliefs. If there is a doubt- 
ing heart, thoroughly imbued with the most destructive 
criticism, unable to find historical standing-ground in 
scripture, he may surely find it in the study of these 
four works of St. Paul. 

The second question, whether the great features of 
the dogmatic teaching which we receive, and especially 
the doctrine of vicarious atonement, are taught in the 
New Testament, admits of satisfactory settlement. The 
negative of this position has been asserted, in conse- 
quence of the alleged fact that this particular doctrine 
is rather expressed implicitly than explicitly in the 
earliest fathers; which is to be accounted for by the 
tendency, while contending against Jewish monotheism, 
or heathen theism, to put forward the messiahship and 
incarnation of Christ, in comparison with other reli- 
ions, rather than his atoning work. 48 Careful study 
will soon decide a question of this kind, if directed first 

-April 1860 ; and a refutation of them in Dr. S. Davidson's Introduction to 
the New Testament, vol. ii. 

47 Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul, by 
Lord Lyttleton, 1747. Cfr. also the note above, on p. 2()9. 

48 The history of the doctrine of the atonement. is given in Bp. Thom- 
son's Hampton Lectures, 1853 (lectures vi. and vii.), and in the essay on 
the Atonement m Aids to Faith, 18G2; also in Hagenbach's Dogmcnge- 
schichte, § 68, 134, 180, 268, and 300. The two chief works on the sub- 
ject are, Chr. Baur's Lehre von der VersOhnung, 1838, and Dorner's Lehre 
von der Person Christi. The fair conclusion in respect to the doctrine of 
the early church on the subject seems to be the one stated in the text. 
The doctrine of the atonement was believed and taught ; but for the reason 
here named it was not drawn out into such explicit statement as in modern 
times. Anselm developed it by eliciting what was already contained in it, 
not by superadding any human elements which did not exist there before. 
It is Baur, to whom allusion is made in the text, who implies the contrary ; 
and some English writers have followed him. 



LECTURE VIII. 369 

to tlie text of scripture; and secondly, as is most im- 
portant in all questions of the history of doctrine, to the 
fathers, as the historic witnesses *at once to the teaching 
of their day, and to the traditions of the teaching of an 
older age than their own. 49 

Supposing however that the authenticity of the 
hooks be granted, and the existence in them of dog- 
matic teaching, as we now hold it, be conceded ; how 
are we to answer the final misgiving which might arise, 
that a doctrine like the atonement was not merely truth 
relatively to the age in which it was taught, to be sur- 
rendered if it conflict with the moral sense? If indeed 
miraculous attestation, the authority of supernatural 
assistance, be conceded, this doubt will be extinguished 
in most minds by such an admission ; but how is it to 
be fully met, consistently with our object to point out 
how a doubter may be directed, who desires not to have 
the natural revelation in his heart crushed, and yet who 
does not claim, like the deists, that he must comprehend 
that which he believes, but only that at least he must 
apprehend it \ 50 

We concede the authority of the moral sense to 
check all dogmas that are not shown to be part of the 
teaching of men su p era atur ally inspired ; and we should 
feel surprised if there were a direct conflict between 
God's voice through the apostles and God's voice 
through the human conscience. Probably it could be 
shown that no such conflict exists ; but if it did, we 
should be inclined to ask whether the moral sense, 
infallible in what it forbids, is equally so in what it 
asserts : 5I whether it cannot possibly admit of such 
improvement as would cause the difficulty not to be 

40 The work of the late Professor Blunt on the right use of the Fathers 
may be consulted for a true and right view of their value. 

50 We apprehend a fact when we recognise its existence ; we compre- 
hend it when we can refer it to the cause which produces it. 

51 Cfr. the remarks in Dr. WhewelPs preface to his edition of Butler's 
first three sermons for some suggestions on the nature of conscience. His 
object is to show that Butler taught only its psychological supremacy, not 
its moral infallibility. Cfr. also his Lecture on Moral Philosophy in Eng- 
land, p. 129 seq. 

1G* 







370 LECTURE VIII. 

felt ; or, if felt, to be cancelled by one of those mental 
antinomies, 52 the existence of which is undeniable : or 
whether there is not still independent and contemporary 
evidence, to which appeal can be made, to corroborate 
the apostles' teaching. 

Let us, for example, suppose that we have come to 
the conclusion, that the apostles taught the doctrine of 
the atonement ; and that our moral sense is puzzled 
with the justice of the system, of the transfer of merit 
implied in those analogies under which the mysterious 
verity is unveiled to us, and with its apparent incom- 
patibility with a corrective theory of punishment : the 
thought of error, or of merely relative truth, in the 
apostles' teaching in such a matter, is forbidden to the 
mind of any one who admits the least divine inspiration 
in them, from the fact that this is- the innermost and 
most sacred truth of their creed. We could imagine 
the early teachers left unaided in all matters irrelevant 
to religion ; nay, by a stretch of supposition, possibly 
even in some unimportant things appertaining to re- 
ligion itself: but a mistake on the work and office of 
Christ, — the very point which, of all others, they were 
commissioned to teach ; — an ingredient of error insinu- 
ating itself here, is utterly improbable. If even the 
inspired authority were denied, the improbability would 
be hardly less apparent. For this was not a doctrine 
of the head, but of the feelings ; not a fact coldly be- 
lieved, but appropriated ; the voice of the inmost con- 
sciousness." If the story of the apostles be true, that 
the belief of this doctrine, and the prayers founded 
upon it, had made them changed, men ; if too their his- 
tory testifies to the reality of their professions of ex- 
traordinary holiness ; we could not, even if we did not 
know from their writings that they were men who were 
accustomed to the careful analysis of their own feelings, 
conceive a fatal falsehood to lurk here, in a point where 
the mixture of inference with consciousness must have 
been reduced to a minimum. 

52 Page 84. Cfr. also bishop Thomson's Bampton Lectures (lect. v. 
p. 125). 



LECTUEE VIII. 371 

In this particular case of the atonement, there is 
however an independent proof of the correctness of the 
apostles' teaching, through the corroboration of it which 
is offered by the Christian consciousness of the church. 
We have before had occasion 53 to explain the introduc- 
tion of this idea in the teaching of Schleiermacher, and 
to protest against the use which he proposed to make of 
it as a source of truth, independently of the Christian 
consciousness of the apostles and first teachers ; as the 
gradual source of doctrinal progress, the oracular ut- 
terance to this age, as the apostolic consciousness was to 
the first age. 

But there is a deep truth in it, if we use the Chris- 
tian consciousness, not to supersede scripture, but as 
the living corroboration and interpreter of it. The 
Spirit of God still works on the hearts of men morally, 
as upon the apostles of old ; not by conferring the intel- 
lectual gift of inspiration, but in the moral gifts of pen- 
itence, of conversion, of pardon, of holiness. Holy men 
now feel the Spirit of God striving with them as the 
apostles did, and appropriate the excellence of Chris- 
tianity, and feel its renovating power now as then. 
Therefore the attestation of these men, such as is col- 
lected by an induction founded on their biographies, 
to the fact that when they analyse their secret feelings 
with the most exact care, they recognise that the par- 
don which they receive is through the mercy of Christ ; 
that their moments of most hallowed communion with 
the Father-spirit are when they approach the throne of 
mercy through the mediation and intercession of an- 
other, Christ Jesus ; that the victory vouchsafed to them 
over temptation, is by His merits ; that their heart finds 
no Father for one moment except through him ; — this 
evidence, if it can be accepted, is an independent cor- 
roboration of dogmatic truth. It may be explained 
away, by denying the truth of their analysis, or by 
referring their feeling to mental association; but it 
cannot fail to have a persuasive force for those who 
have faith in the instinctive utterances of the human 
63 Page 245 seq. 









372 lecture vm. 

soul : and the reliance upon it is not more extraordinary 
than that on which we depend in cognate subjects like 
aesthetics, where the taste of practical skill is trusted. 
Christian consciousness thus becomes a new source of 
facts in theological study ; the living voice of the 
church for illustrating and confirming in some degree 
the utterance of men of old, who spake that which was 
revealed to their souls by the inspiring Spirit. 

Such are the chief steps which the history of evi- 
dences, in the contest with early heathenism, as well as 
in the recent struggle in Germany, seems to point out 
as the most likely to lead a doubter to Christ ; and 
such the order in which the philosophical and historical 
evidences ought to be respectively presented, if our 
object be to give due heed to the desire which an in- 
quirer evinces to appropriate the truth which he be- 
lieves. Such too, if the opinion already advanced con- 
cerning the future of modern doubt be correct, seems 
to be the final answer which the church can give. 
Without undue compromise, commencing with the in- 
ternal evidence, we thus lead men to the external, and 
make philosophy as it were the schoolmaster to lead to 
Christ. 

The third question of those which we enumerated as 
likely to press upon us, viz. that which refers to the 
inspiration of the scriptures, requires only a few words ; 
inasmuch as the treatment of it has already, to some 
extent, been implied. 

This question has been elevated, since the Reforma- 
tion, to an importance which it hardly possessed be- 
fore. Since the authority of the Bible has been sub- 
stituted for the authority of the church, it has been 
usual to regard the scriptures as the mode of leading 
men to Christ, instead of considering the knowledge of 
Christ received through the ministrations of the church 
as the clue to interpret scripture. Logically, the scrip- 
ture is the rule of faith, the ground of the church's 
teaching ; but chronologically, the teaching of the church 
is the means of our knowing the scripture. 54 

54 Similarly, an innate law of thought is logically prior as a condition 
in attaining knowledge; but experience is chronologically prior. 



LECTURE Yin. 373 

A caution hence arises, that we should not be will- 
ing to allow preliminary difficulties, which a doubter 
may have in reference to the scriptures, to deter us 
from leading him straight to Christ, and then allowing 
him by the light of this teaching to reconsider the ques- 
tion of the scripture. The difficulties will generally be 
found to have reference to the historical and literary 
portions, rather than the doctrinal, or those portions of 
the literature which contain the doctrinal. If indeed 
they refer to the doctrinal, they must be answered at 
the outset in the manner already shown. If however 
to the literary, they will be viewed in a different light, 
if the doubter has been brought to appreciate the cen- 
tral truths of Christianity, from that which they will 
bear if wrangled out on the threshold of his approach. 
In the last century indeed, the comparative importance 
of the doctrinal parts of scripture over the literary was 
so perceived, when doubts were pressed on the attention 
of the clergy by the pertinacity of the deist controver- 
sialists, that many of the eminent writers restricted the 
plenary inspiration of the scripture writers to the ap- 
propriate matter of the revelation, the supernatural 
communication of the miraculous system of redemption ; 
and conceived that it was no derogation from the 
supreme religious authority of the sacred writers, but 
rather compatible with the loftiest idea of the provi- 
dential adaptation of means to ends, to suppose them 
unassisted in literary matters, such as the transcription 
of genealogies, the reference to natural phenomena, or 
the literal exactitude of quotations. The jewel of di- 
vine truth did not, in their opinion, sparkle less bril- 
liantly because it was handed down in a frame of 
antique setting. (50) In the present day there is a 
strong reaction in religious minds in favour of the op- 
posite view, identical with the one held in the seven- 
teenth century by the Puritans. The reaction is only a 
special instance of the general movement in favour of 
authority, political and ecclesiastical, which has taken 
a sudden advance throughout the religious part of 
Europe, in opposition to the subjective tendency already 



S7i LECTURE VIII. 

noticed in secular literature. 53 This special view how- 
ever is dictated by a noble motive, a watchful fear lest 
the loss of a single atom may weaken the whole struc- 
ture. Whether it be true or not is not at present under 
consideration, but merely the caution which ought to 
be used in pressing it upon doubters at the outset of an 
approach to the subject of religion. If the object be 
really to draw them to Christ, we must become all 
things to all men; and, while not mutilating the heav- 
enly message, take heed not to repel the weak believer 
from coming to the Saviour, by interposing unnecessary 
literary obstacles. 

It is very common to hear or to read the dilemma 
put before the doubter, that he must accept everything 
or nothing in Christianity and the Bible. 56 Such an 
alternative, though dictated by a commendable motive, 
is likely to prove ineffectual. The Dilemma is a form of 
reasoning which rarely persuades. Its object is rather 
to silence than to convince. It is more a trick of rhet- 
oric than an argument of logic. It may make a person 
pause by showing him his apparent position ; but the 
heart, if not the head, can always find means to escape 
from an alternative which it dislikes. And in this par- 
ticular case the use of it involves the risk of overlooking 
the different degrees of importance which belong to dif- 
ferent portions of religion, and the very different de- 
crees of evidence on which different portions of it rest. 
Though the smallest circumstances in reference to it are 
of importance, yet it were less vital to doubt the miracu- 
lous inspiration of a genealogy than the authoritative 
I caching of an epistle ; or to doubt the date of a book 
than its contents. ~No doubt is unimportant ; but it 
were merely repeating the sophistry of the Stoics, in 
making all sins equal, to deny gradations of importance 
in doubts ; gradations which however are not here put 
forward to. defend eclecticism, but to enforce the lesson, 

55 It has been shown above (p. 310) that this very reaction is itself in- 
directly a result of the subjective tendency. 

5,5 E. g. in R. E. H. Greyson (IT. Rogers) Correspondence. Cfr. the 
remarks on ft in the National Review for Oct. 1857. 



LECTURE VIII. 875 

that, in dealing with a doubter, the consideration of this 
fact must guide us in the order in which we present the 
evidence of different parts to his mind. It not nn- 
frequently happens that the perusal of the holy scrip- 
ture is the means of drawing a soul to Christ ; the 
volume in its solitary majesty telling its own. tale: or, 
to speak more reverently, applied to the heart by the 
Spirit of God : but generally, if a doubter's heart be 
tilled with historical and critical doubts, he must be 
led through Christ to the Bible, rather than conversely, 
and through the New Testament to the Old. If once 
he can be brought to the perception of a Saviour for 
sinful man, his doubts will assume a new aspect, and 
will adjust themselves into their true place, or perhaps 
rind their own solution. 

Yet, when we have used all methods of argument 
which the survey of the history has given us reason to 
believe may prove useful, it were affectation to conceal 
our belief in the perpetual operation, secret and unob- 
served, of an invisible monitor and persuader, the blessed 
Spirit of God. Though w T e may look to philosophy to 
prepare the way, by exciting an appreciation of the 
wants which Christianity supplies, and an apprehen- 
sion of the suitability of Christianity as the perfection 
of our spiritual nature ; we must confess that it is to 
the unseen leadings of the Spirit of God that we trust, 
to make the heart feel the truth as well as perceive it, 
and love as well as appreciate it. If we accept the fact 
of God's interference to effect man's salvation, and re- 
gard it as His special will to bring men to the knowl- 
edge of Christ, and trust His promise of assistance to 
the church," it is not enthusiasm, but the most rational 
faith, to expect divine assistance to attend constantly 
on the efforts made to spread the truth which He has 
been pleased to reveal ; not to interfere indeed w^ith 
the fixed laws of the rational faculties, but to remove 
prejudices of the heart which might blind the appre- 
hension, and to hallow the soul into a temple for the 
enshrinement of His truth. 

More especially if it be true, as we have perpetually 

"■Matt, xxviii. 20. 



376 LECTURE VIII. 

insisted, that there is a large region for the influence 
of emotional causes of doubt, in addition to the intel- 
lectual, which have been the subject of our special 
study, we may well believe that here is a field where 
'the Holy Spirit alone can enter, and in which He only 
has the power to operate. Evidence, as evidence, is 
apprehended and tested by the intellectual faculties ; 
but whatever is the subtle influence, consciously or 
unconsciously exercised by the emotions, in a matter 
where the evidence is probable, not demonstrative, this 
offers a sphere where the help of an all-loving God may 
be hoped for to dissipate the alienation of prejudice or 
indifference. Paul may plant, and Apollos may water ; 
but it is God that giveth the increase. 

We have now considered the lessons taught by the 
history, both as to the moral function of free thought, 
the forms of it which are most likely to meet Christians 
in the present day, and the means which seem most 
useful for <nridhi2; a doubter into truth. 

The history may teach a final lesson to us as Chris- 
tian students, not so much in reference to leading others 
to truth, as in relation to the means by which we can 
attain it ourselves. 

In all the days of peril through which the church 
has passed, the means used by those who have striven 
to find the truth, and become a blessing to the world, 
have been, — study and prayer. In the solitude of their 
own hearts, by quiet meditation, they have sought to 
understand the utterance of the inspired volume ; and 
to secure by prayer the illuminating influence of the 
divine Spirit, to cause them to behold wondrous things 
in God's law.' 8 And thus in an age of coldness they 
have kept the flame of divine love burning with un- 
extinguished glory on the altar of their hearts ; and 
in an age of questioning have been able to burst forth 
from their prison-house of doubt, and gaze with the 
clearness of unclouded faith on the truth once for all 

58 E. g. Augustin, Anselm, and in modern times such men as Bengel 
and Neander. 



lectuke vni. 377 

delivered to the saints. If, in the dark night of doubt 
or sin which has spread its veil over the world, there 
have been stars that have shown to the pilgrim steadier 
and clearer light than the other luminaries of the heav- 
ens, the cause has been that they have reflected some 
rays of the Divine glory, which had been concentrated 
in the sunlike brightness of the apostolic inspiration. 

If we have found that the present age oilers its 
peculiar intellectual trials ; and if we feel ourselves 
set in the midst of so many and great dangers ; let us 
not be paralysed by the consciousness of them, so as to 
deem the search for truth unimportant, or anticipate 
that it will be unsuccessful ; but rather be led to in- 
creased energy in striving to follow the example ' of 
those who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, 
and by the word of their testimony. 59 Let us realise 
the solemnity of our position as responsible and im- 
mortal beings. We are creatures of a day, soon to pass 
into eternity ; placed here to prepare ourselves for that 
unknown world into which we shall carry the moral 
character that has been stamped upon us here ; and 
capable, whilst we are here, of doing untold good by 
a godly example, or of contributing to the ruin of the 
souls of our fellow men. How important, both for our- 
selves and others, that we should learn and appropriate 
that truth which is to be the means of our salvation ! 
how important for ourselves, lest we be castaway ! 
how important for others, lest we help them to build a 
structure of wood, hay, stubble, 00 which shall be con- 
sumed in the day of the Lord ! 

Let us strive to use the two methods of finding 
truth, — study and prayer. Let us gain more knowl- 
edge, and consecrate it to the investigation of the high- 
est problems of life and of religion ; especially applying 
ourselves, by the help of the ripest aid which miscel- 
laneous literature or church history can afford us, to the 
study of the sacred scriptures. But above all these in- 
tellectual instruments, let us add the further- one of 
prayer. For prayer not only has a reflex value on our- 
58 Rev. xii. 11. 60 1 Cor. iii. 12. 



3 1$ LECTURE Vni. 

selves, purifying our hearts, dispersing our prejudices, 
hushing our troubled spirits into peace ; but it acts 
really, though mysteriously, on God. It ascends far 
away from earth to the spot where He has His dwell- 
ing-place. The infinite God condescends to enter into 
communion with our spirits, as really as a man that 
talketh with a friend. The Saviour of pity will Him- 
self look down upon us, and condescend to become our 
teacher, and give us the purity of heart which will lead 
us into truth.. Oar own trials, 'our own struggles for 
truth and holiness, the desire to know Christ and to 
be known by Him, w 7 ill excite our deep pity for those 
who endure the like temptations, and prepare us for 
effectually ministering to the good of others. And if 
the struggle in our own hearts be long, and there be 
moments when we seem to have our Gethsemane ; let 
us cleave the closer, with the more simple trust, to our 
heavenly Father ; still imploring Him to grant us in 
this world knowledge of his truth, and in the world to 
come life everlasting ; assured that the clouds shall one 
day disperse, and the vision of truth be unveiled to us 
in the bright light of the eternal morning. 

I shall be well content that all that I have said to you 
be forgotten ; and when these lectures take their hum- 
ble place in the series of which they form a part, deriv- 
ing an honour, not their own, from the great names 
with which they are associated, I shall be willing that 
they be consigned to neglect ; if I can only hope that 
this final exhortation to prayerful study may remain fixed 
in the memory of any one of those that now hear these 
words, or may impress the mind of any chance student 
who, in traversing the same ground, may hereafter have 
occasion to peruse them, at a time perhaps when the 
voice that now speaks shall be hushed in the tomb, and 
the spirit shall have gone to its account. 

The lectures are now ended. May God forgive the 
errors, and sanctify any truth that has been uttered to 
His honour! The faults are mine: the truth is His, not 
mine. To Him be the glory. 



NOTES 



LECTUKE I. 

Note 1. p. 3. 

SUBDIVISIONS OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY. 

A FEW words inay explain the distinctions intended in the 
text. 

History has been properly distinguished by Macaulay into two 
branches, the artistic or descriptive, and the scientific or analytic. 
{Essays, vol. i. 2, on Hallam.) If viewed in the former aspect, 
history aims as far as possible to reproduce what has been, to re- 
cover a picture of the past. Hence it is obedient to the two con- 
ditions which rule all art, — precise outline in details, and preserva- 
tion of perspective in the combination. In the latter, theory in 
some slight degree steps in, but theory dictated by the instinct of 
taste rather than by reflection. It is in this branch, in which the 
historian is the critic, that the border line lies between art and 
science. For it is hard to measure the precise amount which is 
due in the appreciation of facts respectively to artistic intuition 
and to reflective analysis. 1 

Supposing the facts to be thus given, it is the province of the 
science of history to ascertain their causes. Two living writers, 
Mr. Mill {System of Logic), and Dr. Whewell {Philosophy of In- 
ductive Sciences), have given an account of the logic of science. 
That of the latter is more suitable to the conception which we are 
here forming of history ; for history is exactly one of the class of 
sciences which he calls " Palaetiological." (vol. i. b. x.) It re- 
quires first, that we recover the record of the successive stages of 
facts, the narrative of the past, before searching for the causes. 
The causes are then to be sought by transferring backward for the 
explanation of the past those which are at present operating. The 
search will probably exhibit three successive stages in the process 

1 In the able work on Tlte Live by IT. Taine, (Couronne, 1S56,) will be found a 
study of Livy as a critic and as a philosopher ; which illustrates not only the scien- 
tific aspect of history, but the influence of science iu the special determination of th« 
tacts, which has frequently been attributed to art. » 



380 NOTE 2. [Lect. L 

of examination. First, causes will be found which are the mere 
antecedents of the events, the mere links which connect the 
phenomena. Next, a cyclical law of the recurrence of the facts is 
perceived, such e. g. as Vico's well-known law concerning the 
development of political society. Such a law as this, supposing it 
to hold good without exception within the limits of experience, is 
what Mr. Mill calls an ik empirical law." (Logic, vol. ii. b. iii. ch. 
xvi.) Next, this law must be analysed into its causes. Mr. Mill 
gives three forms which this third stage of analysis may assume in 
science. (Id. vol. i. b. iii. ch. xii.) Probably in history it will 
generally assume the one of the three in which the complex result 
is analysed into its simpler component elements. (Id. § 2.) 

This inquiry would complete the study of history as a science. 
But when we deal with moral as distinct from material relations, 
we feel that there is a question of philosophy as well as science, 
one of ethics and metaphysics, which rises above all lower ones. 
"We instinctively wish to measure the responsibility of the moral 
agents who have contributed to work out the results which have 
been studied. We turn to the personal and biographical question 
for the purpose of the ethical lesson. The theist also asks another 
question. Believing that nature and man are the work, direct or 
indirect, of a personal Creator and Governor, of infinite power and 
goodness, he strives to search out the purposes of Providence, 
hoping to find in the drama of universal history the solution of the 
l^l ot which he could not expect to attain by the study of a portion 
of it. 

Such arc the ideas which arc intended in the text- 



Note 2. p. 4. 

THE COMPAEATIVE STUDY OF KELIGIOXS. 

The comparison of Christianity with other religions was neces- 
sarily forced upon the Christian church by contact with the 
heathen world. 

We meet in the early fathers with two distinct opinions ; the 
one held in the Alexandrian school, that the heathen religions 
were imperfect but had a germ of truth, and that philosophy was 
a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ ; the other chiefly in the 
African school, that they were entire errors, and an obstacle to 
the conversion of mankind. 

In the middle ages, contact with Mahometan life (see Lect. 
III. p. 88) created a sceptical mode of comparing Christianity 
with other creeds ; circumstances compelling toleration, and tolera- 
tion passing into indifference. A similar spirit is also seen in the 
hasty attempt of the French philosophers of the last century tc 
resolve all religion into priestcraft. 

It is only in still more recent times that the first scientific con- 
ception of a comparative study of religion arose. Even in Herder 



Lbct. I.] NOTE 3. 3g"L 

the comparison is resthetical more than scientific, and relates to 
the comparison of literatures more than of religious ideas. Ben- 
jamin Constant .{Be la Religion Consideree dans sa source, ses 
formes et ses developpements, 1824) seems to have been the first 
who really suggested a serious psychological examination ; and 
hence there soon arose the idea of comparative theology analogous 
to comparative anatomy. His spirit has pervaded French litera- 
ture subsequently. The religious speculations of the eclectic school 
give expression to it ; e. g. Quinet (Le Genie des Religions, vol. i.) ; 
and the mode of contemplating religion in Renan {Etudes de VEis- 
toire Religieuse) is based upon it. Caution in using the method is 
necessary on the part of those who believe in the unique and 
miraculous character of the Jewish and Christian revelations. In 
Lect. III. (p. 87) we have given an enumeration of three modes ; 
the one true, the others false ; in which Christianity may be put 
into comparison with other creeds. 

Mr. Maurice's Boyle Bectures on the Religions of the World 
refer to this subject ; and some useful remarks exist in Morell's 
Philosophy of Religion, (c. iii. and iv.) But the book most full of 
information is the interesting Christian Advocate's Fullication, of 
the late archdeacon Hardwick, Christ and other Masters ; a work 
full of learning and piety, unfortunately left unfinished by the 
tragedy of his premature death in August 1859. In the parts pub- 
lished he has compared Christianity with the Egyptian and Persian 
religions (part iv.), with the Hindoo (part ii.), and the Chinese 
(part iii.) ; and he was preparing materials fur its comparison with 
the Teutonic, and with those of the classic nations. 



Note 3. p. 4. 

ZEND AND SANSKRIT LITEEATUEE. 

The purpose of this note is to indicate the sources of informa- 
tion in reference to (1) the Zend and (2) the Sanskrit literature, 
for illustrating the comparative history of religion. 

1. It was about the middle of the last century (1762) that 
Anquetil du Perron brought manuscripts to Europe from Guzerat, 
written in the Zend or ancient Persian tongue. For some time 
the relation of the language to the Sanskrit was not understood. 
The great scholar to whom are due both the study of the tonguo 
and the editing of the Yagna, was Eugene Burnouf. The work 
just named is the first of the three works which make up the Vendi- 
dad Sade ; parts of which possibly go back to a period almost 
coeval with Zoroaster, i. e. perhaps the sixth century B. C. Two 
other works exist for the study of the Persian theology, though 
much more modern in date, — the Besatir of the ninth century 
A.D., and the Babistan of the seventeenth, — which both contain 
fragments of ancient traditions embedded in their texts. The 




gg2 KOTE 3. [Lect. I. 

Aresta, of which the Vendidad is one of the oldest parts, has been 
edited by Spiegel. References to the older literature concerning 
it may be found in Heeren's History of the Asiatic Nations, vol. i. 
ch. ii. 

An account of the present results of comparative philology in 
reference to Persian is given by professor Max Miiller in Bunsen's 
Philosophy of History, vol. i. p. 110. E. T. The Persian theology 
brought to light by these investigations is discussed by A. Franck, 
in a paper, Les Doctrines Religieuses et Philosophiqv.es de la Perse, 
in his Etudes Orientates, 1861 ; also in Dr. John Wilson's Parsi 
Religion, 1843 ; Martin Haug's Essays on the Parsis, 1861, founded 
on Burnouf 's researches ; and in archdeacon Hardwick's Christ and 
other Masters, part iv. ch. iii. (Hyde's Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. 1700, 
is obsolete.) 

2. The Sanskrit literature has been the subject of still more 
careful study by a series of learned men. See Donaldson's Craty- 
lus, b. i. ch. ii. § 36. 3d ed. Nearly the whole of the literature 
indirectly offers materials for a history of the alteration and deteri- 
oration of religious and ethical ideas, and of the relation of schools 
of philosophy to a national creed preserved by the priesthood and 
deposited in books esteemed sacred. The literary works can bo 
placed in their relative order, though the absence of all chrono- 
logical dates from the time of the contact of the Indians with the 
Greeks (third century B. C), down to the visits of the Chinese 
Buddhist pilgrims in the fourth and seventh centuries A. D., 
whose works have been translated into French by A. Eemusat and 
Stanislas Julien, 2 and the Mahometan histories, renders the deter- 
mination of absolute dates impossible. The following arc the 
dates approximately given for the chief works of Sanskrit litera- 
ture. The Vedas. especially the oldest, date from B. 0. 1200 to 
600. The Epic Poems, the Rdmdyana and Malbabhdrata, are per- 
haps of the third century B. G ; the laws of Mann, or more truly 
of the family which claimed descent from the mythical Mann, con- 
tain materials dating from several centuries B. G, but were put 
into their present form probably several centuries A. D. ; the 
Bhagamat Gitd, an episode in the Mahdbhdrata bearing traces of 
a Christian influence, dates some centuries A. D. The Hindu 
drama is perhaps subsequent to 500 A. D. The Purdnas carry on 
the literature to mediaeval times. Several of the systems of 
philosophy were probably constructed anterior to the Christian 
era ; but the date at which they were put into their present form 
is undetermined. 

The earlier literature is regarded as the most valuable for the 
study of the growth of religious ideas and institutions. The devel- 
opment or deterioration may be traced from the simple nature- 
worship of tiie Vedas, to the accumulation of legends which dis- 

2 Voyage dans VJnde par C. Fafcian, traduit par A. Remusat, 1S37, and ITixt. 
de la Vie de Hinueri Timing, being vol. i. of Jfemoires sur les Contrlen Oc< identalea, 
1-858. by Stan. Julien. Tho former travelled about A. D. 400; the latter in the seventh 
century. 



lect. l] note 3. 333 

grace the modern creed. The causes which gave birth to mythol- 
ogy are no longer a matter of conjecture ; the study of the Sanskrit 
language and literature having exhibited an historical instance of 
it. In this way the early Sanskrit literature becomes one of the 
most precious treasures to the mental philosopher who approaches 
his subject from the historical side. 

The earliest Veda is in course of publication by professor Max 
Muller. It has been partly translated by the late professor H. EL 
Wilson, and wholly' by Langlois. Mr. M. Muller has given the 
results of his studies of this early literature in his admirable work, 
the History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859 ; which is full of 
instruction for the philosopher who is inquiring concerning intel- 
lectual and religious history. Most of the other works named 
above have also been translated into European languages, viz. the 
Epic Poems, — the Bdmdyana, in Italian by Gorresio, and in French 
by H. Fauche, 1854 ; and Episodes from the Mahdbhdrata by P. E. 
Foucaux, 1862; — also the Laws of Mann, 2 in English by Sir W. 
Jones, and in French by A. Loiseleur Des-Lonchainps ; the Bha- 
gavat Gitd by Wilkins, 1809, the text of which was edited by 
Schlegel, 1823; the 2d ed. by 0. Lassen, 1846. One of the Purd- 
nas (the Vishnu) has been translated by Wilson ; and part of the 
Bhagavat by Burnouf, who has also edited the text. • 

Concerning the systems of Hindu philosophy; see Bitter's His- 
tory of Philosophy, E. T. vol. iv. b. xii. ch. v ; Archer Butler's 
Lectures on Philosophy, vol. i. p. 243 seq. ; Colebrooke's Essays on 
the Philosophy of the Hindus, 1837; Aphorisms of Hindu Philoso- 
phy, printed under the care of Dr. Ballantyne for the Benares 
government college ; and Dr. B. Williams's Christianity and Hin- 
duism, 1856. The work of the late archdeacon Eardwiek, Christ 
and other Masters, also contains a brief account of three of the 
systems of philosophy, the Veddnta, founded on the sacred books, 
the SdnJchya or atheistic, and the Yoga or mystic, together with a 
comparison of them with Christianity (part ii.). An explanation 
of a part of the Nydya or Logical Philosophy, is given by Max 
Muller in the Appendix to Dr. Thomson's Outlines of the Laws of 
Thought, 3d ed. 

On the system of thought in Buddhism, on which the study 
of the Pali has thrown light, consult E. Burnouf's Introduction d 
V Histoire du Buddhisme Indien ; and Spence Hardy's Manual of 
Budhism, 1853. Also archdeacon Hardwick's work above named. 
The Hindu history, exhibiting its double movement, of philosophy 
on the one hand and of the Buddhist reformation on the other, 
has been thought to offer a distant analogy to the mental history 
of Europe in the double movement of the scholastic philosophy 
and the reformation. 

The celebrated works of C. Lassen, Indische AlterthumsTcunde, 
1844-47, and A. Weber, Indische Studien, 1850, are well known 

3 The abbe Migne is publishing in French, Livres Sacres de toutes les Rel:giom 
snuflti Religion Chretianne. 



384 NOTE 4. [Lect. I. 

as sources of information in reference to the general subject. Also 
Dr. J. Muir has lately published (1858) Sanskrit Texts on the Origin 
and Progress of the Religion and Institutions of India. Several 
articles in reviews have appeared which contain much popular 
information; e. g. in the North British Review, Nov. 1858 ; West- 
minster Review, April 1860; Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1860. On 
the general subject of this note compare also Quinet, (Euvres, t. i. 
1. 2, 3. 

Note 4. p. 12. 

THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND JEWS. 

The history of the controversy of Christianity with Judaism is 
so connected in the writings of the early apologists with the con- 
temporaneous one directed against Paganism, and in recent times 
so related in one- of its aspects to rationalism, that these reasons 
seem sufficient, independently of the literary interest, to justify the 
insertion of a brief notice of it, and of the sources of information 
with respect to it. 

The controversy with the Jew varies in different ages. "We 
can distinguish three separate phases; (1) that which is seen in 
the early centuries, (2) in the middle ages, and early modern times, 
(3) the position which is taken up by the educated Jew at the 
present day. The sources for understanding the contest are, 
partly the Jewish writings, and partly those of Christians who 
have written against them. 

1. In the early ages the controversy merely turned upon the 
question whether Jesus was the Christ. The Jews did not deny 
the fact of the Christian miracles, but explained them away ; and 
the controversy accordingly turned on the interpretation of Jewish 
prophecy. This phase of the contest is seen in the New Testa- 
ment, in the Apology of Justin Martyr against Trvpho, to which 
a new kind of objection expressive of prejudice is added in the 
discourse which Oelsus, as preserved in Origen (Contr. Cels. b. i. 
and ii.), puts into the mouth of the Jew whom he introduces. In 
reference to it, the commentators on these fathers, and especially 
Semisch's work on Justin Martyr (translated), and the works on 
the Jewish Talmudic literature and philosophy, may be consulted. 
The contest is continued at intervals in treatises by inferior 
writers ; an account of which may be found in the sources of in- 
formation hereafter given, and in Hagenbacli's Dogmengesch. § 144. 

2. The second phase of the contest is seen in the middle ages, 
and in modern times till about 1700 A. D. It is marked by two lines 
of thought on the part of the Jewish writers; a system of defence 
of their own tenets by a method of scriptural interpretation; and 
the attack of calumny or of argument against Christianity. The 
former existed especially in Moorish Spain about the twelfth cen- 
tury, the golden age of Jewish literature. For a brief account of 



Lect. I.] NOTE 4 335 

the theological literature of the Jewish nation at that time, and in 
the period which had intervened since the early ages, the writer 
may be permitted to refer to one of his own Sermons, and the 
references there given {Science in Theology, 1859, Sermon IV.) ; to 
which references add Beugnot's Les Juifs d" 1 Occident, 1820, and 
the new work of De Los Rios on Spanish Literature. The move- 
ment included both a philosophical side in Maimonides, and a 
critical in Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Ivimchi, &c. 

The other movement, which was hostile to Christianity, was 
marked by a series of works, written by Jews for their own nation, 
and carefully hidden from the sight of Christians, probably for 
fear of persecution and suffering; which were given to the world 
by the learning of the foreign Hebrew scholars of the seventeenth 
century. The chief of these works are, the Nizzachon Vetus of 
the twelfth century, first published in Wagenseil's Tela Ignea 
Satance, 1681. In the thirteenth, the Disputatio Jechielis cum 
Nicholao, Disputatio Naehmnnidis cum fratre Paolo, and the cele- 
brated Toldos Jeschu or Jewish view of Christ's life. About 1399 
the Rabbin Lipmann wrote the second book Nizzachon, which was 
published by Hackspan, 1644; and also the Carmen Memoriale ; 
and about 1580* the Rabbin Isaac wrote the noted Chissak Emuna, 
or Manimen Fidei. All these (with the exception of the second 
Nizzachon) are contained in Wagenseil. During the period one 
important defence of Christianity against the Jews appeared, the 
Pugio Ftdei by Raymund Martin, in Arragon, about 12T8, which 
has been edited with an introduction by De Voisin 1651, and by 
Carpzov. Another defence was by Alphonso de Spina. Fortaliti- 
um Ftdei con'rajadceos, Saracenos, 1487. In Eichhorn's Geschichte 

4 In the work quoted above, Science in TJirolngy, the date of this Eabbin was 
erroneously given as the seventeenth century (p. 123). This was the date when 
Wagenseil by great good fortune obtained a copy of his work, and first made it public. 
The writer avails himself of this opportunity, in which he has occasion to name his 
own volume, to correct a few mistakes, and make a few alterations where subsequent 
study has convinced him that he was in error. E. g. In Sermon IV. the illustration 
from Indian history (p. Ill) is based on the view, now known to be wrong, that 
Buddhism preceded Brahminism in origin. Also the view (p. 109) of the date of the 
introduction of the Chaldee character has been rendered doubtful by the arguments 
which Hupfeld has directed to the subject (Amfuhrliche Hebrdische Grammatik), 
in which he shows that the corruption of the 'language was gradual, and that the 
adoption of the square Chaldee character did not take place till after Christ. (See a 
brief account of his views in Davidson's Introd. to Old Text. 1S56, ch. ii.) Also, p. 
121, the use of the word k surnamed ' for Jarchi disguises the origin of the name. In 
Sermon I. (2d div.) the order of chronology is not sufficiently observed in the quota- 
tions from the Old Testament. In Serm. VIII. (p. 244) the apologetic worth of 
miracles (suggested by a remarkable speech of Bp. Wilberforce in the Town Hall. 
C£&£>rd, Nov. 23, 1346. See Oxford Herald- of Dec. 5) is perhaps hardly sufficient. 
I&Serm. VI. the view that the early church held the doctrine of atonement impli- 
citly rather than explicitly, in life rather than dogma, till AnselnVs time, is insufficient 
and liable to convey an erroneous impression. (See Bp. Thomson's restatement of 
the historic question in Aids to Faith, pp. 339-352.) The revelation of God in the. 
New Testament is most express on the subject of substitutional atonement. Of 
this the writer of these Sermons never had any doubt; but he now thinks that there 
are clearer evidences of it in the fathers than he had stated. Eeasons are perceivable 
in the circumstance of the constant struggle against heathen 'religions, in which the 
fathers were involved, which led them to dwell on the incarnation rather than on the 
atonement. Anselm only gave expression to the doctrine which the apostles had 
clearly taught. 

17 






Qg(3 NOTE 4. [Lect. I. 

der Biteratur, vol. vi. 26, another treatise is named by a writer 
called Hieronymus, 1552. 

During the period just considered the contest with the Jews 
was carried on chiefly in Spain, or the few Jewish settlements of 
Lithuania. Henceforth it is chiefly seen in Germany and Holland, 
where the learned Dutch and German theologians of the seven- 
teenth century were brought into contact with them, or were 
attracted to the study of the controversy by an interest in the 
newly awakened taste for Hebrew learning. This age supplies 
works of great value in gaining a knowledge of Jewish literature, 
some of which will be named below, and a few treatises, such as, 
one by Micraslius (Be Messid, 1647) ; a brief notice by Hoornbeek, 
Summa Controv. 1653 (p. 65) ; an unfinished treatise by Hulsius, 
Theologia Judaica, 1653 ; and one by Cocceius, Jud. Bespons. 
Consid. 1662. The activity of the Jews is seen in the fact that an 
unfair attack by Bentz, 1614, was answered in the Theriaca 
Judaica of the Jew Salomo Zebi, Hanover 1615, which again met 
with a Christian respondent in Wulferus, 1681. Also Limborch 
had a dispute with a Jew in his Arnica Collatio cum Erudito Judcw 
(Dr. Orobius), 1687. The controversy continued through the 
eighteenth century, probably outlasting its cause ; for defences on 
the side of the Jews ceased. We meet with two works by Difen- 
bach, Judams Convertendus, 1696, and Judams Conversus, 1709; 
Calvoer's Gloria Christi, 1710 ; Mormeus' Be Yerit. Relig. Christi- 
anas, 1707; and, in England, Bp. Kidder's and Dr. Stanhope's Boyle 
Bectures, the former of which was the basis of the treatise, The 
Demonstration of the Messias, 1700; and O. Leslie's Short Method 
with the Jeics. Catalogues of the writings, of which the above are 
the best known, may be found in J. A. Fabricius's Biblioth. Grate. 
(ed. 1715), vii. 125; and Be Verit. Relig. Christiana, 1725, ch. 
xxxi ; and Blaspheniia Judaorum, Id. ch. xxxvii ; Walch's Biblioth. 
Theol. Selecta, vol. i. c. v. sect. 8. (1757); also in Bartollocci's 
Dictionary of Jewish Authors, 1678, and ImbOnati's Dictionary of 
Christian Writers concerning the Jews, 1694; and especially in 
Wolff's Biblioth. Hebr. 1715, and De Rossi's Bizionario degli 
Autori Ebrei, 1802. For information concerning sources of Jewish 
theology and literature, it is enough to cite Hottinger's Historia 
Orientalis, Carpzov's Introductio, and Owen's Prelim. Exercita- 
tiones. 

3. In the third phase of the controversy, viz. that which exists 
with the modern Jew, the controversy is a little changed. The 
old prejudices against Christianity are in a great degree made ob- 
solete by the freedom of commercial intercourse, and the enjoy- 
ment of protection and civil liberty ; and hence the contest takes 
two forms ; either the continuation of the argument concerning 
the meaning of Jewish prophecy, or a discussion on the function 
of the Jewish religion in history. Sources for the former are 
found in the older 'books of evidence. A digest of the arguments 
concerning it is given in J. Fabrici s (not the celebrated Fabricius), 



Lect. I.] NOTE 5. 357 

Consideraiio Variarum Controversiarum, 1704, p. 41, and in Stop- 
fer's Institut. Theolog. Polemic, vol. iii. l-2b8, 1752 ; or in the 
modern works, Greville Ewing's Essays addressed to the Jews, and 
Dr. McCaul's Old Paths, 1837, and his Warourton Lectures, 1846. 
The condition of Jewish life and thought may be seen in Allen's 
Modern Judaism. The system of interpretation on which the con- 
troversy is conducted is either the ancient Messianic and allegor- 
ical of the Targums and Talmud, or the literal and grammatical 
introduced by the Spanish niediseval commentators. 5 

The other form of Jewish argument which Christians have to 
encounter is more novel, and, being confined to educated Jews, 
its influence is less wide, and does not actuate the stratum of Jew- 
ish life with which missionaries generally come into contact. It 
is based on modern rationalist speculations, and is seen in a work 
of Dr. Philippsohn, late rabbin at' Magdeburg, Pevelopment of the 
Religious Idea in Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism, (trans- 
lated both into English 1855, and also into French,) and in the 
writings of Salvador. Dr. Philippsohn regards the mission of Juda- 
ism to be, from first to last, to teach to the world the lesson of 
monotheism. He traces the struggle in the Jewish church between 
priestism and pr.ophetism ; and regards Christianity as an abnormal 
form of the latter, which has led the world away to Tritheism: 
and, so far from regarding the office of Judaism to be extinct, he 
considers that its mission is still to restore monotheism to the world. 
A comparison with the statement of the views of the Tubingen 
school in Lect. VII. or the speculations of Mr. Mackay in Lect. 
VIII. will show how completely this argument is borrowed from 
the later forms of G-erman historical criticism. 

The views of Salvador in France (see p. 290) are too original 
to be regarded as typical of the views of a party. They reproduce 
the critical difficulties of Maimonides and Spinoza, which seem 
•never to have found favour with the Jews ; but the general similar- 
ity of the doctrinal part of Salvador's system to that just described 
is very observable. 

Note 5, p> 12. 

TIIE CONTEST OF CHRISTIANITY WITH MAHOMETANISM. 

The contest of Christianity with Mahometanism, so far as it 
has been a struggle of argument and not of the sword, <offers few 
remarkable points. In the first sweep of the Mahometan conquest, 
when the Christian nations succumbed both in the east and west, 
there was no field for a question of truth. It was only in Chri.-tian 

5 There are congregations of reformed -Tews in some countries who reject the 
Talmud as a system of interpretation They are Jewish prot:stants. Their stand 
point only differs from that of the old Jews in lavincr stress on the ethical aspect of 
relis-ion. Sermons by one of them, the Eahbin Marks, have lately been published in 
England. It will be unders f ood from the above account that the modern Jews in- 
clude three parties; the orthodox Jews, the reformed, and the rationalistic. 



333 NOTE 5. [Lbct. I. 

nations which were removed from peril, and yet sufficiently in 
contact to entertain the question of the claims of the Mahometan 
religion, that a consideration of its nature, regarded as a system 
of doctrine, could arise. Accordingly it is in Constantinople, or 
in Spain and the other parts of western Europe which came into 
connexion with the Moors, that works of this character appear. 

The history may be conveniently arranged in three periods, 
each of which is marked by works of defence, some called forth 
by danger, a real demand, but subsiding into or. connected with 
inquiries prompted only by literary tastes. The first is from the 
twelfth to. the middle of the sixteenth century ; the second du- 
ring the seventeenth and eighteenth ; the third during the present 
century. 

1. A notice of the Mahometan religion exists in a work of J. 
Damascenus, in the eighth century ; and Euthymius Zigabenus, a 
Byzantine writer of the twelfth : but the first important treatise 
written directly against it was in 1210, Eichardi Confutation 
edited in 1543 by Bibliander from a Greek copy. The refutation 
of Averroes by Aquinas, about 1230, can hardly be quoted as an 
instance of a work against the Mahometan religion, being rather 
against its philosophy. A treatise exists by John Oantacuzene, 
written a little after 1350 ; which is to be explained probably by 
the circumstance that the danger from Mahometan powers in the 
east directed the attention of a literary man .to the religion and 
institutions which they professed. Thus far the works were called 
forth by a real demand. 

A series of treatises however commences about the time of the 
expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the cause of the existence of 
which is not so easy of explanation. Such are those in Spain by 
Alphonso de Spina, 1487, and by Turrecremata (see Eichhorn's 
Gesch. der Lit. vi.) ; by Nicholas de Cuza, published in 1543 ; in 
Italy about 1500 by Ludovicus Vives, and Volterranus ; one by 
Philip Melancthon in reference to the reading of the Koran ; and 
a collection of treatises, including those of Richardus, Oantacuzene, 
Vives, and Melancthon, published by Bibliander in 1543. Prob- 
ably the first two of this list may have been the relic of the cru- 
sade of Christianity against the Moorish religion ; the next two 
possibly were called forth by the interest excited in reference to 
Mahometans by reason of their conquests, or less probably by the 
influence of their philosophy at Padua (see Lect. III. p. 100 seq.). 
The two last are hardly to be explained, except by supposing them 
to be an offshoot of the Renaissance, and called forth by the large- 
ness of literary taste and inquiry excited, by that event. 

2. When we pass into the seventeenth century, wo find a series 
of treatises on the same subject, which must be explained by the 
cause just named, the newly acquired interest in Arabic and other 
eastern tongues. We meet however with others, called forth by 
the missionary exertions which had brought the Christians into 
contact with Mahometans in the east. 



lect. i.] note 5. 333 

The treatise by Bleda, Defensio Fidel Christian®, 1610, stands 
alone, unconnected with any cause. It was partly a defence of 
the conduct of Christians towards the Mahometans. A real inter- 
est however belongs to the work of Gruadagnoli in 1631. A cath- 
olic missionary, Hieronymo Xavier, had composed in 1596 a 
treatise in Persian against Mahometanism, in which the general 
principle of theism was laid down as opposed to the Mahometan 
doctrine of absorption ; next the peculiar doctrines of Christianity 
stated ; and lastly, a contrast drawn between the two religions. 
See Lee's Tracts on Christianity and Mahometanism (below, pref. 
p. 5 seq.). 

This work was answered in 1621 by a Persian nobleman named 
Ahmed Ibn Zain Elebidin. The line adopted by him was, (1) to 
show that the coming of Mahomet was predicted in the Old Testa- 
ment (Hab. iii. 3) ; (2) to argue that Mahomet's teaching was not 
more opposed to Christ's than his was to that of Moses, and that 
therefore both ought to be admitted, or both rejected; (3) to point 
out critically the discrepancies in the Gospels ; (4) to attack the 
doctrines of the Trinity and Christ's deity. (Lee, pre/. 41 seq.) 

This work was answered (1631) by a treatise in Latin by P. 
Guadagnoli, dedicated to Pope Urban VIII. It is divided into 
four parts ; (1) respecting the objections about the Trinity ; (2) 
the Incarnation ; (3) the authority of Scripture ; (4) the claims of 
the Koran and of Mahomet. (Lee, pre/. 108 seq. who also gives 
references (p. 113) to a few other writers, chiefly in the seventeenth 
century.) 

The further works of defence produced in this century arose as 
it were accidentally. The lengthy summary of the Mahometan 
controversy in Hoornbeek's Summa Controversiarum, 1653, p. 75 
seq. was either introduced merely to give completeness to the 
work as a treatise on polemic, or was called forth by considera- 
tions connected with missions, as is made probable by his work 
De Conversione Gentilium et Indorum. Le Moyne's publication on 
the subject in the Varia Sacra, vol. i. 1685, arose from the acci- 
dental discovery of an old treatise, Bart holomce i Ed 'ess. Confutatio 
Hagareni. A third work of this kind, Maracci's Criticism on the 
Koran, 1698, arose from the circumstance that the pope would not 
allow the publication of an edition of the Koran, without an ac- 
companying refutation of each part of it. The work of Hottinger 
(Hist. Orient, b. i.), Pfeiffer's Theol. Judaica et Mahom. and Kor- 
tholt's De Eelig. Mahom. 1663, form the transition into an inde- 
pendent literary investigation ; which is seen in the literary in- 
quiries concerning the life of Mahomet, as well as his doctrine, in 
Pocock, Prideaux 1697,Keland 1707, Boulainvilliers 1730, and the 
translation of the Koran by Sale 1734. A slightly controversial 
tone pervades some of them. The materials collected by them 
were occasionally used by deist and infidel writers (e. g. by 
Chubb), for instituting an unfavourable comparison between Christ 
and Mahomet. 



390 



NOTE 5. 



[Lect. I. 









The great literary historians of that period give lists of the 
previous writers connected with the investigation. See J. A. 
Fabricius, Biblioth. Grcec. ed. 1715, vol. vii. p. 136; Walch, Bibli- 
oth. Theol. Sel. vol. i. chap. v. sect, 9. A summary of the arguments 
used in the controversy is given in J. Fabricius, Delectus Argu- 
mentorum, p. 41, &c. and Stapfer's Inst. Theol. Polem. iii. p. 289, 
&c. 

3. In the present century the literature in reference to Mahom- 
etanism is, as in the former instances, twofold in kind. Part 
of it has been called forth by missionary contests in the east ; 
part by literary or historic tastes, and the modern love of car- 
rying the comparative method of study into every branch of his- 
tory. 

The first class is illustrated by the discussions at Shiraz in 1811, 
between the saintly Henry Martyn and some Persian Moollas. 
The controversy was opened by a tract, sophistical but acute, writ- 
ten by Mirza Ibrahim ; (Lee, pp. 1-39) ; the object of which was 
to show the superiority of the standing miracle seen in the excel- 
lence of the Koran, over the ancient miracles of Christianity. Mar- 
tyn replied to this in a series of tracts (Lee, p. 80 seq.), and was 
again met by Mohammed Ruza of Hamadan, in a much more elab- 
orate work, in which, among other arguments, the writer attempts 
to show predictions of Mahomet in the Old Testament, and in the 
New applying to him the promise of the Paraclete (Lee, pp. 161— 
450). These tracts were translated in 1824, with an elaborate 
preface containing an account of the preceding controversy of 
Guadagnoli, -by Professor S. Lee of Cambridge, Controversial 
Tracts on Christianity and Mahometanism, which is the work so 
frequently cited above. To complete the history it is necessary to 
add, that a discussion was held a few years ago between an ac- 
complished Mahometan and Mr. French, a learned missionary at 
Agra. 

The literary aspect of the subiect, not however wholly free 
from controversy, w r as opened by White, in the Bampton Lectures 
for 1784 ; and abundant sources have lately been furnished. 
Among them are, Sprengcr's Life of Mahomet, 1851, and Muir's, 
1858. Also a new r translation of the Koran by the Kev. J. M. 
Rodwell, where the Suras are arranged chronologically. The fol- 
lowing ought also to be added, Dr. Macbride's Mahometan Religion 
Explained, 1857; Arnold on Mahometanism, 1859 ; Tholuck's Ver- 
mischte Schriften, i. (1-27); Die Wunder Mohammed's und dcr 
Character des Religionstifters; Dr. Stanley's Lectures on the His- 
tory of the Eastern Church, lect. viii. and the references there 
given; Maurice's Religions of the World; and Kenan's Etudes 
d?Histoire Religieuse. (Ess. iv.) The modern study has been 
directed more especially to attain a greater knowledge of Mahom- 
et's life, character, and writings ; the antecedent religious con- 
dition of Arabia; 6 and the characteristics of Mahometanisin, 

6 Cfr. Ilavernick's Introd. to Old Test. (E. T.) § 23, 24. 



Lhct. I.] NOTE 6. 391 

when put into comparison with other creeds, and when viewed 
psychologically in relation to the human mind. 

The materials also for a study of the Mahometan form of phi- 
losophy, both in itself and in its relation to the religion, have been 
furnished by Aug. Schmoelders, Essai sur les Ecoles Philosophiques 
chez les Arabes, 1842. See also Hitter's Ghr. Phil. iii. 665 seq. ; iv. 
1-181. 

JSote 6. p. 12. 

UNITAEIANISM. 

It may be useful to indicate the chief stages of the history of 
TJnitarianism, and the sources of information with regard to it, as 
it bears a close analogy to some forms of free thought, such as 
deism, 7 and connects itself more or less nearly with forms of ra- 
tionalism which occur in the course of the history. 

The first instance of it is in the early ages, either as a Jewish 
Gnostic sect, Ebionitism, or in some of the other forms of Gnos- 
ticism; passing in the east into Arianism, which lowered God, and 
in the west into Pelagianism, which elevated man. For this period 
see F. Lange, Geschichte und Lehrbegriffi d. Unitarier vor cl. Nicae- 
nischen Synode, 1831 ; Hagenbach's Dogmengeschichte, § 23 ; and 
the church histories which treat of this period. 

In the middle ages the tendency may be considered to bo 
mainly represented by Mahometanism, and hardly exists at all in 
the Christian church. 

Its modern form arises at the time of the Eeformation. 

1. Originating in Italy, it exists as a doctrine in Switzerland 
and Germany from 1525-1560. See F. Trechsers Die Protest. An- 
titrinitarier vor Faustus Socinus, 1844. The best known names 
are Servetus, Lelio Sozini, and Ochino. 

2. It exists as a church at Kacow in Poland, where the exiles 
found a refuge. Here Faustus Sozinus (1539-1603), nephew of 
Lelio, an<d J. Orellius, are the best known names. In 1609 Schmelz 
drew up the Socinian Formula, the Eacovian Catechism. It was 
also here that the collection of Socinian writers, the Bibliotheca 
Fratrum Polohorum, 1626, was published. The history of the sect 
up to this point may be found in the Introduction to Eees's Trans- 
lation of the Eacovian Catechism, 1818. Also see Hallam's History 
of Literature, i. 554. ii. 335 ; Mosheim's Church History, sixteenth 
century, § 2. P. ii. ch. iv ; Hase's Church History (Engl. Transl.), 
§ 371, 2. The Socinians were driven out of Poland in 1658, by 
the influence of the Jesuits ; and, passing into Holland, became ab- 
sorbed in the church of the Remonstrants or Arminians. 

3. The next stage of Socinianism is, as a doctrine, in England 
in the seventeenth century. In 1611 two persons, Hammont and 
Lewis, suffered martyrdom for it ; and it spread widely during the 

7 Cfr. Bp. Horsley's Letters against Priestley, Lett, xyi, p. 264. 



392 • NOTE 6. [Lect. I. 

Long Parliament. (See Dr. Owen's Vind. Evangel, pref.) The 
chief teacher was J. Biddle (1615-1662). The interest of it 
arises from its supposed parallelism to the Arminianism of Hales 
in the time of Charles I, and to the latitudinarian party of Which- 
cote and More in that of Charles II. But the parallel is not quite 
correct. The study of Arminius's writings (see J. Nicholls's trans- 
lation, 1825,) shows that he was not a Pelagian, 8 if even his suc- 
cessors were. But even Episcopius and Limborch hardly reached 
this point. Hales resembled Episcopius. Nor is the parallel much 
nearer with '"the latitude men ;" for Socinianism lacked their Pla- 
tonizing tendency. The Arian tendency, which commenced at 
the end of the century, both in the church, in such writers as 
Whiston and Clarke, and among the presbyterians, offers a nearer 
parallel, in being, like Socinianism, Unitarian in tendency. On 
this period see Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. (Notes to § 234.) 

4. Its next form, was as a set of congregations in England in 
the eighteenth century, chiefly arising out of the presbyterians ; 
marked by great names, such as Lardner, Lowman, Priestley. 
Shortly before the close of the century, it was introduced into 
America. 

5. Its last form is a modification of the old Socinian view, 
formed under the pressure of evangelical religion on the one side 
and rationalist criticism on the other. The accomplished writers, 
Channing in America and Mr. J. Martineau in England, are the 
best types of this form. Priestley, Channing, and Martineau, are 
the examples of the successive phases of modern Unitarian ism : 
Priestley, of the old Socinianism building itself upon a sensational 
philosophy; Channing, of the attempt to gain a larger develop- 
ment of the spiritual element; Martineau, of the elevation of view 
induced by the philosophy of Cousin, and the introduction of the 
idea of historical progress in religious ideas. In reference to this 
part of the history see E. Renan's Essay on Channing, Etudes de 
VHist. Relig. p. 357; E. Ellis's Half Century of Unitarian Con- 
troversy (in America), 1858; J.J. Taylor's Retrospect of Religious 
Life in England, 1845; Dr. Beard's Unitarianism in its Actual 
State; and other references given in the notes to H. B. Smith's 
translation of Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. New York, 1862. ii. 
p. 441. 

In addition to the above references, materials for the history 
will be found in Sandius, Biblioth. Antitrin. 1684; Bock's Hist. 
Antitrin. 1774; Otto Foch's Her Socinianismus, &c. 1847; and 
an article in the North British Review, No. 60, for May 1859. The 
history of the controversial literature on the subject is given in 
Pfati's Lntrod. in Hist. Thro!. Lit. vol. ii. p. 320 seq. ; and more 
fully in Walch's Biblioth. Theol. Select, vol. i. p. 902 seq. For a 

8 The nearest English parallel to the teaching of Armmius personally (as distinct 
from that of his successors), on the quinquarticular controversy, is the doctrine of 
John Wesley. The nearest, parallel to the general views of Episcopius and Limborch 
was Hey of Cambridge at the close of the last century. 

y A sketch of Priestley is given in Mr. Martineau's Miscellanies. 



Lect. I.] NOTE 7. 393 

digest of the arguments used in the controversy, see Lloornbeek's 
Summa Controv. 1653, p. 440; J Fabricius, Consid. Var. Controv. 
pp. 99-208 ; and Stapler's Inst. Theol. Polem. vol. iii. c. 12. 



Note 7. p. 24. 

CLASSIFICATION OF METAPHYSICAL INQUIRIES. 

The scheme on the following page will perhaps facilitate the 
reading of the text. The writer is perfectly aware of the many 
objections which may be directed against particular parts of this, 
scheme. It is merely introduced here that the reader may he put 
in possession of his meaning. The following notes may further 
contribute to the same end. 

(a). This first subdivision of Metaphysics into Psychology 
and Ontology is very neatly stated by Professor Mansel 
(art. Metaphysics in Encycl. Britann. 8th ed. p. 555, and 
p. 23 in the reprint of the article, 1860) ; Cir. also 
Archer Butler's Lect. on Phil. vol. i. lect. i-iii. 

(b) It must be understood, that when we pass here from & 

division of the inquiries concerning the mind to a sup- 
posed division of the mind itself, we imply only a di- 
vision of states of consciousness or mental functions, 
not an absolute and real division of the mind itself. 
Distinctness of structure is only the inference ; dis- 
tinctness of function is a fact, given in the act of con- 
sciousness. 

(c) The distinctness of the Will, as a faculty, from the emo- 

tions will be disputed by many. It is maintained by 
Maine de Biran, and the Eclectic school of France. 
Mr. Mill, Logic, vol. ii. b. vi. eh. ii, implies the con- 
trary, and regards Will to be a particular state of feel- 
ing. 

(d) The difference of the presentative from the representa- 

tive consciousness is now generally understood, since 
the arguments of Sir W. Hamilton have been com- 
monly known. See his edition of Keid, note B. p. 804 ; 
Discussions, Ess. ii. and Lect. on Metaphysics ; Mansel's 
work above cited, p. 560, 584; Morell's Phil, of lielig. 
ch. ii. 

(e) The separation of Intuition from Perception is a point 

much disputed. It is maintained by Schelling and by 
Cousin, and made familiar by Coleridge, Aids to Re- 
flection, i. p. 168 seq. See also Morell's Philos. of Pc- 
lig. ch. ii; Hist, of Phil. ii. p. 487 seq. Among 
English psychologists however, intuition is identified 
with perception; or if slightly distinguished, as by 
Mr. Mansel, it is made synonymous with every " pre- 

17* 



394: 



NOTE 7. 



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LBCT.I.l NOTES. 395 

sentative " act of consciousness, and thus includes 
the consciousness of our own minds, as well as the 
sensational consciousness usually denoted by the word 
" perception." With reference to the view intended 
on this subject in these lectures, see a note on p. 28. 

(f) With reference to these schools, see Morell's Hist, of 

Philosophy (vol. i. Introduction) ; and Cousin's Gouts 
de la Philosophic du 18 me Siecle. 

(g) This subdivision of the subject matter of Ontology is 

well stated by Mansel in the Encyc. Britann. above 
cited, 603, 613 seq. This work of Mr. Mansel is on the 
whole the clearest exposition of Psychology, studied 
from the side of consciousness, which has appeared. 
Mr. Morell's recent work on Psychology presents a 
view different from his former ones, and unites the 
physiological treatment of the inquiry; being bor- 
rowed partly from the recent speculations which the 
teaching of Herbert has induced in Germany. See 
Note 41. 

Note 8. p. 28. 

QUOTATION FEOM GUIZOT ON PEAYEE. 

Th'e following eloquent remarks seem worth quoting, as illus- 
trative of the instinct in the soul of man to perform the act of 
prayer ; the natural outgoing of the human soul after the infinite 
Being. They -are taken from Guizot, EEglise et la Societe Chrc- 
tiejine, 1861. 

" Seul entre tons les etres ici-bas rhomme prie. Parmi ses in- 
stincts moraux, il n'y en a point de phis naturel, de plus universel, 
de plus invincible que la priere. L'enfant s'y porte avec une do- 
cilite empressee. Le vieillard s'y replie comme dans un refuge 
contre la decadence et l'isolement. La priere monte d'elle-meme sur 
les jeunes levres qui balbutient a peine le nom de Dieu et sur les 
levres mourantes qui n'ont plus la force de le prononcer. Chez 
tous les peuples, celebres ou obscurs, civilises ou barbares, on ren- 
contre a chaque pas des actes et des formules d'invocation. Par- 
tout ou vivent des hommes, dans certaines circonstances, a cer- 
taines heures, sous Tempire de certaines impressions de Fame, les 
yeux s'elevent, les mains se joignent, les genoux flechissent, pour 
implorer ou pour rendre graces, pour adorer outpour apaiser. 
Avec transport ou avec tr emblement, publiquement'ou dans le se- 
cret de son coeur, c'est a la priere que Fhoinme s'adresse, en dernier 
recours, pour combler les vides de son ame ou porter les fardeaux 
de sadestinee; c'est dans la priere qu'il cherche, quand tout lui 
manque, de l'appui pour sa faiblesse, de la consolation dans ses 
douleurs, de l'esperance pour sa vertu." (p. 22.) 

" II y a, dans Facto naturel et universel de la priere, une foi 



396 NOTE 9. [Lect. I. 

naturelle et universale dans cette action permanente, et toujours 
iibre, de Dieu sur l'homme et sur sa destinee." (p. 24.) 

" 'Les voies de Dieu ne sont pas nos voies: ' nous y marchons 
sans les connaitre; croire sans voir et prier sans prevoir, c'e.st la 
condition que Dieu a faite a l'homme en ce monde, pour tout ce 
qui en depasse les limites.'' (p. 25.) 



Note 9. p. 31. 

ON THE MODERN VIEW OF THE HISTORICAL METHOD IN PHILOSOPHY. 

It lias been implied in the text, at this place, and also in the 
preface, that the " historic method of study" is the great feature 
of this century. The term is ambiguous. The meaning of it how- 
ever is, that each problem ought to be approached from the his- 
toric side. Whether the problem be a fact of society, or of thought, 
or of morals, in each case the questions are asked — What are its 
antecedents? how did it happen? How came it that men accepted 
it? — This is a method exactly the reverse of that which was 
common in the last century. The question then was, Is a thing 
true? The question now is a preliminary one, How came it that 
it was thought to be true? It is probable that in many minds 
there is a slight tendency to pantheism in this method of study. 
The universe is looked at as ever in course of development ; evil 
as "good in the making ;" no fact as wholly bad; no thought as 
wholly false. But, without involving such a tendency, whatever 
is true in the method may be appropriated. It starts only with 
the assumption that the human race is in a state of movement ; 
and that Providence has lessons to teach us if we watch this move- 
ment. It is the method of learning by experience of the past, a 
lesson for conduct in the future. 

The method thus explained, however, is used for two different 
purposes. Either it is intended to be the preliminary process 
preparatory to discovery, or it is designed to take the place of dis- 
covery. In the former case, we ask why men have thought a 
tiling true, for the purpose of afterwards discovering, by. the use 
of other methods, what is true ; in the latter we rest content with 
the historical investigation, and consider the attempt to discover 
absolute truth to be impossible; and regard the problem of phi- 
losophy to be, to gather up the elements of truth in the past. In 
the former case truth is absolute, though particular ages may have 
Mindly groped after it ; in the latter it is relative. In the former, 
the history of philosophy is the preliminary to philosophy ; in the 
latter it is philosophy. In the former, philosophy is a science ; in 
the latter it is a form of criticism. The former view is held by the 
school of Schelling and Cousin ; the latter is an offshoot of that of 
Hegel. The former marked French literature until recent years ; 
the latter is expressed in it at the present time ; and is stated by 



Lect. I.] NOTE 9 30^r 

no one so clearly as by Kenan and Scherer. Most English writers 
will justly prefer the former view ; but the explanation of the lat- 
ter, given in the two passages which follow, is expressed with 
snch clearness, and will be of so much use in explaining subsequent 
allusions in these lectures (especially Lect. VII. and VIII.), that 
it is desirable to print it here. 

"Le trait caracteristique du 19 e siecle est d'avoir substitue la 
methode historiquea la methode dogmatique, danstoutes les etudes 
relatives a l'esprit humain. La critique litteraire n'est plus que 
l'expose des formes diverses de la beaute, c'est a dire des manieres 
dont les differentes families et les differentes ages de l'humanite 
ont resolu le probleme esthetique. La philosophie n'est que le 
tableau des solutions proposees pour resoudre le probleme philoso- 
phique. La theologie ne doit plus etre que l'histoire des efforts 
spontanes tentes pour resoudre le probleme divin. L'histoire, en 
effet, est la forme necessaire de la science de tout ce qui est soumis 
aux lois de la vie changeante et successive. La science des langues, 
c'est l'histoire des langues ; la science des litteratures et des phi- 
losophies, c'est l'histoire des litteratures et des philosophies ; la 
science de l'esprit humain c'est, de mtme, l'histoire de l'esprit 
humain, et non pas seulement l'analyse des rouages de lTime indi- 
viduelle. La psychologie n'envisage que l'individu, et elle l'envi- 
sage d'une maniere abstraite, absolue, comme un snjet permanent 
et toujours identique a lui-meme ; aux yeux de la critique la con- 
science se fait dans l'humanite comme l'individu ; elle a son his- 
toire. Le grand progres de la critique a ete de substituer la cate- 
gorie du devenir a la categorie de Vetre, la conception du relatif a 
la conception de Fabsolu, le mouvement a 1'immobilite. Autrefois^ 
tout etait considere comme etant ; on parlait de philosophie, de 
droit, de politique, d'art, de poesie, d'une maniere absolue ; main- 
tenant tout est considere comme en voie de se faire A 

ce point de vue de la science critique, ce qu'on recherche dans 
l'histoire de la philosophie, c'est beaucoup moins de la philosophie 
proprement dite que de l'histoire." — (E. Eenan, Pref. to Averrocs, 
p. vi.) 

"Tout n'est que relatif, disions-nous tout a l'heure ; il faut 
ajouter maintenant : tout n'est que relation. Verite importune pour 
1'homme qui, dans le fatal courant ou. il est plonge, voudrait trouver 
un point fixe s'arreter un instant, se faire illusion sur la vanite des 
choses! Verite feconde pour la science qui lui doit une intelli- 
gence nouvelle de la realite, une intuition infini'ment plus pene- 
trante du jeu des forces qui composent le monde. C'est ce principe 
qui a fait de l'histoire une science et de toutes les sciences une 
Listoire. C'est en vertu de ce principe qu'il n'y a plus de philoso- 
phie mais des philosophies qui se succedent, qui se completent en 
se succedant, et dont chacune represente avec un element du vrai, 
une phase du developpement de la pensee universelle. Ainsi la 
science s'organise elle-meme et porte en soi sa critique. La classi- 
fication rationnelle des systemes est leur succession, et le seul juge- 



393 NOTE 9. [Lbct. I. 

ment equitable et utile qu'on puisse passer sur eux est celui qu'ils 
passent sur eux-memes en se transforruant. Le vrai n'est plus 
vrai en soi. Oe n'est plus une quantite fixe qu'il s'agit de de- 
-Cager, un objet rond ou carre qu'on puisse tenir dans la main. 
Le vrai, le beau, le juste mSme se font perpetuellement ; ils sont a 
janais en train de se constituer, parce qu'ils ne sont autre chose 
que l'esprit humaiu, qui, en se deployant, se retrouve et se recon- 
nait." — E. Scberer, (article on Hegel in Revue des Deux Moncles, 
Feb. 15, 1861.) 



LECTUEE II. 

Note 10, p. 46. 

NEO-PLATONISM. 

On the nature and history of ISTeo-Platonism, see Bitter's His- 
tory of Philosophy, E. T. vol. iv. b. xiii ; Creuzer's Prolegomena to 
Plotinus ; Tennemann's IfanwaZ of Philosophy , § 200-222; Hase's 
Church History, § 50, with the references which the two latter 
supply ; Jules Simon's and Yacherot's works on the Ecole oVAlex- 
andrie; B. Constant's Bu Polytheisme, b. xv. Among English 
works, see Archer Butler's Lectures on Philosophy, vol. ii. 348 
seq. ; Lewes' History of Philosophy ; Maurice's History of Philo- 
sophy (part ii.) ; Donaldson's History of Greek Literature, ch. 53 
and 57 ; and an essay in E. A. Vaughan's Essays and Remains^ 
1858. 

The mystic and oriental tendency which Neo-Platonism em- 
bodied is seen as early as Philo in the middle of the first century ; 
but it was Ammonius Saccus (A. D. 163-243) who developed the 
new system about A. D. 200. The chief teachers of it were Plo- 
tinus (born 203), who introduced it at Rome ; Porphyry (233-305), 
who however manifested more of the mystic Pythagorean spirit 
and less of the dialectical Platonic ; Iamblichus, a generation later, 
who also inclined to theurgy ; and in the fifth century Hypatia, 
killed 415 ; and Proclus (412-485), who taught at Athens. A 
growth of thought is perceptible in the successive members of the 
school. The sketches of several of the above-named writers in 
Smith's Biographical Bictionary are full of information, and fur- 
nished with useful references. 



Note 11. p. 47. 

THE PSEUDO-CLEMENTINE LITEEATUEE. 

The Pseudo-Clementine literature consists of Homilies and 
Recognitions ; the latter being in a Latin translation by Eufinus. 
It is published in Cotelerius's Sancti Patres, 1698, vol i. 



4.9 Q NOTE 12. [Lect. II 

A noble Roman, harassed by his doubts and eager for truth, 
travels to the east, and there learns Christian truth, which makes 
him happy. It is the former part of the narrative, viz. the doubts 
of Clemens before becoming a Christian, which is alluded to in 
the text, and is adduced by Meander, Kirchengeschichte, i. pp. 54- 
56, as an instance of the preparation for the reception of Christian' 
ity made by a sense of want in many hearts. But it is the latter 
part which is valuable in a literary point of view, on account of 
the light which the exposition of Christian doctrine contained in 
it throws upon the Judaizing Gnostics, being an attempt to recon- 
cile Ebionitism with the teaching of St. Paul. Its interest in 
this point of view has caused it to be made the subject of 
several monographs by German theologians. A list of them, 
with an account of the phases of doctrine described, is. given in 
Kurtz's Church History, E. T. § 48, and in Ease's Church History, 
§ 35, 75, and SO. One of the most important of them is Schlie- 



Note 12. p. 48. 

THE ABSENCE OF REFERENCES TO CHRISTIANITY IN HEATUEN 
WRITERS OF THE SECOND CENTURY. 

Tzchirner has investigated this subject in an interesting dis- 
sertation, Groccl et Eomani Scriptores cur rcrum Christianarum 
raro meminerint ; Opusc. Acad. p. 283. Lips. 1829, (translated in 
the Journal of Sacred Literature, Jan. 1853 ;) and has discussed 
the passages where mention is made of Christianity. The follow- 
ing is the substance of his inquiries. 

Though the notices concerning Christianity in heathen writers 
are scanty, the silence of Eusebius gives good ground for inferring, 
that not many further notices existed concerning it in the works 
which are lost, than have been preserved to us. Perhaps a few 
passages may have been erased in which Christianity was blas- 
phemed, even in that which is preserved. 

The silence concerning Christianity during the first century 
is not surprising ; because the Christians, if known at all, would 
be regarded as a Jewish sect, as in Acts xviii. 15 ; xxiii. 29 ; xxv. 
19. In the third century they are both noticed and attacked. The 
inquiry therefore with regard to the silence about them, refers only 
to the period from about A. D. 80-180. 

During this period, among the Greek writers who omit .nil 
mention of Christianity, are Dio Chrysostom ; Plutarch (for the 
passage, Qucest. iv. 4. § 3, about happiness consisting in hope, 
probably does not refer to them) ; GEnomaus, who wrote expressly 
to ridicule religion ; Maximus Tyrius ; and Pausanias : and among 
Latin ones, Juvenal, who several times mentions the Jews, but 
only indirectly refers to the Christians (Sat. i. 185-7), Aulus 
Gellius, and Apuleius ; (for the opinion of Warburton, Die. Leg. 



Lect. II.] NOTE 12. 4QJ_ 

b. ii. § 4, that an allusion is intended, is now rejected, 10 unless one 
perhaps exists in Met. ix. ed. Panck. ii. 195.) 

Among those who name Christians we find, — 

In Trajan's reign, Tacitus, who describes their persecution by 
Nero {Ann. xv. 44) ; Suetonius, who names them, Vit.Neron. ch. 
1«», and describes them as seditious, Vit. Claud. 25, if indeed the 
word Chresto in the paragraph is intended for Christo ; and Pliny 
tlie younger, in the well-known letter to Trajan (Ep. x. 96). 

In the reign of Hadrian we find, in a fragment of Hadrian's 
works in Vopiscus's Life of Saturninus (ch. viii.) a mention of them, ' / 
comparing them with Serapid worshippers ; and one quoted by 
Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. iv. 9, addressed to a proconsul of Asia. 
Also Arrian names them in two passages, in one describing them 
[as obstinate, Diss. Epictet. b. iv. ch. vii. and in the other speaking 
either of them or of the Jews as Parma-Tcii (b. ii. ch. ii.) 

In the reign of the Antonines we find Galen stigmatising 
them for obstinacy (Be Pulsuum Biff. b. iii. ch. iii.), and for be- 
lieving without proof (b. ii. ch. iv.) ; and Marcus Aurelius himself 
inquires (Comment, b. xi. ch. iii), what can be the cause of their in- 
flexibility. His two epistles which contain allusions to Christianity, 
one of them attributing his victory over the Marcomanni to the 
thundering legion, and the other stating that it is the business of 
the gods and not men to punish, are rejected as spurious. 

In the same reign we find Crescens and Fronto, who are treated 
of elsewhere, Lect. II. p. 48 ; and Lucian (p. 49). Tzchirner 
denies the allusions supposed to lurk in many passages of Lucian 
examined by Krebsius and Eichstadt ; but, independently of 
those in the Peregrinus, ch. xi-xiv, on which see Lect. II and Note 
13, there remains one where Alexander the magician is said to ex- 
clude Christians and Epicureans from his magical rites. In the 
same reign we meet with Celsus ; after which time the notices of 
Christianity are frequent ; the account of which will be found in 
Lardner's Works, vol. viii. 

If now we pass from the facts to the cause, and ask why the 
notices are so few, Tzchirner very properly answers, that the si- 
lence in the first century is explained, partly by the general pov- 
erty and retirement of the Christians, and partly by the circum- 
stance named above, that they were included among Jews. But 
in the second century, when Christianity was so far known that 
several learned men abandoned heathenism for it, such as Quadra- 
tic, Melito, Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Minucius 
Felix; Tzchirner refers the silence chiefly to the fact that the 
opinions and position of the Christians prevented them from being 
considered worthy of attention by members of any of those 
schools of philosophy whose probable opinions in reference to it 
have been already explained in Lect. II. Celsus alone had the 
far-sightedness to apprehend danger from them, both philosophi- 
cally and politically. 

19 But see Pressense, Hist, de VEglise, 2e Ser. t. ii. p. 154 



402 NOTE 13. [Lect. II. 

Note 13. p. 49. 
THE PEEEGEIXUS peoteus of litciax. 

The question of Lucian's intention to injure Christianity has 
been discussed and maintained by Krebsius in a Dissertation, 
De Malitioso Luciani Gonsilio Religionem Ghristianam scurrili di- 
cacitate van-am. et ridiculam reddendi, Opusc. Acad. p. 308 seq. 
The contrary view is maintained by Eichstadt in a dissertation, 
Lucianus num scriptis suis adjuvare voluerit Religionem Ghristia- 
nam, Jena, 1822. K.rebsius is extravagant in interpreting many 
unimportant references in Lucian as relating to Christianity. See 
Tzchirner, Opusc. Acad. p. 296. Neander also states his opinion on 
the question, Kirchengesch. i. 269 seq. 

The same subject has been discussed with great care and learn- 
ing by Adolph Planck, dean of Heidenheimin Wiirtemburg, Lucian 
und Christenthum, a contribution to the church history of the 
second century ; originally published in the Studien und Kritiken, 
1851, and translated in the American Bibliotheca Sacra, April and 
July, 1853. He there studies Lucian's tract, the Peregrinus, (1) in 
the character which it offers of Peregrinus as a Cynic, for the 
purpose of examining the probability of his death being a parody 
on Christian martyrdom ; (2) in his character as a Christian, in 
order to exhibit Lucian's opinion of Christianity and of the traits 
of Christian life brought out ; (3) with a view to ascertain the 
sources and amount of Lucian's knowledge of Christianity ^dis- 
cussing fully, by means of quotations, the evidence of Lucian's 
acquaintance with the early Christian literature. 

The analysis of the Peregrinus Proteus is as follows : It pro- 
fesses to be a letter from Lucian to Cromius narrating Peregrin us's 
death. Peregrinus had gone to Olympia, with the pompous de- 
sign of displaying his death before the assembly at the games. 
Lucian lets us hear the speeches, descriptive of Peregrinus's life, 
delivered before the decisive act. A certain Theagenes, an ad- 
mirer of Peregrinus, delivers a bombastic eulogy, § 3-7, repelling 
the charge of vanity imputed to him, and comparing his proposed 
death with that of Hercules, &c. Lucian opposes to this some in- 
vectives delivered by another, whose name he professes to have 
forgotten, which refer, § 7-30, to the history of Peregrinus to 
which Theagenes had alluded ; tracing his crimes, his journeys 
from land to land, his turning Christian in Syria, his expulsion for 
disobedience, his subsequent wanderings and crimes, and the uni- 
versal contempt which he had brought upon himself. Theagenes 
replies to this speech ; but Lucian preferred to go to see the 
wrestling-match. Afterwards however he heard Peregrinus pro- 
nounce his own eulogy, and boast of his sufferings on behalf of 
philosophy. Then, after most of the guests had left Elis, § 35, 
&c, Peregrinus proceeded to erect his own funeral pile, and con- 



Lkct. II.] NOTE 14. 4Q3 

sumed himself on it. Lucian after seeing the end went away, and 
added a legend about the appearance of a hawk ; which story he 
soon afterwards found had already gained credence. The moral 
which he draws is, that Cromius ought to despise such people, 
and impute their conduct to love of fame. 

The passages of the work which have specific reference to 
Christianity are, § 11 -13, which describe Peregrinus's intercourse 
with the Christians ; and § 35-41, which describe his martyrdom. 
The references are to Dindorf's ed. Paris 1840. 



Note 14. p. 51. 

THE WOEK OF CELSUS. 

It is difficult to obtain an exact conception of the work of Cel- 
sus. This is due partly perhaps to its original form ; for Origen 
himself complains (Cont. Cels. i. 40) of the want of order in Cel- 
sus ; and partly to the fact that a mind like that of Origen did 
not follow his opponent step by step, but frequently grasped a 
general principle which enabled him to meet a group of objections 
dispersed through different parts of Celsus's work. 

As it was desirable for the object of the lecture to present Cel- 
sus's views rather than analyse Origen's treatise, the writer en- 
deavoured, when preparing it, to select materials from Origen for 
drawing out a sketch in systematic form, somewhat in the man- 
ner of Neander's remarks {Church History, i. 274), of Celsus's 
views, concerning (1) God and creation ; (2) man's moral state ; 
(3) the Hebrew and Christian religions in their sacred books and 
doctrines. But on the publication of Pressense's work (Hist, de 
VEglise, 2 e serie, ii. pp. 104-142), he perceived the plan of ar- 
rangement there suggested to possess so much more life, that he 
adopted it in the text. Pressense considers that, by a careful study 
of the fragments of Celsus quoted by Origen, he is able to repro- 
duce a picture of the whole work, as well as to gather his opin- 
ions. Such an arrangement must necessarily be hypothetical, like 
Niebuhr's treatment of Eoman history, though extremely prob- 
able. It will be observed however, by noticing the references to 
Origen's work in the foot-notes of Pressense's text, and of Lec- 
ture. II. in this volume, that the arrangement suggested for Cel- 
sus's treatise does not always coincide with the order in which 
Origen has quoted the parts of it. Also the references to the later 
books of Origen will be seen to be fewer than to the earlier ; a 
circumstance which arises from the quotations from Celsus's work 
being fewer in those books, and from the thoughts of Origen in 
them being a continuation of those presented earlier. Pressense's 
arrangement has the disadvantage too of leaving out many of the 
critical difficulties which Celsus alleges in the scriptures ; but he 
rightly points out that they are all corollaries from a philosophical 



4.Q4 NOTE 15. [Lkct. II. 

principle. The reader may accordingly consult Neander for a 
systematic view of Celsus's opinions, and Pressense for a theory 
of the arrangement of his work. 

It may be useful to give a brief statement of the order in which 
Celsus's objections occur in Origen's treatise, so as to show the 
manner in which the subject is there developed. 

The first half of book i. is prefatory (ch. i-xl.) ; the second half, 
together with b. ii, contains the attack by the Jew on Christianity 
given in Lect. II. The early part of b. iii. (1^9) contains Origen's 
refutation of the Jew. The subsequent parts and remaining books 
give Origen's refutation of Celsus's own attack on Christianity. 
First, Celsus attacks the character of Christians in the remainder 
of b. iii. In b. iv. he returns to his attack on Judaism, and on the 
scriptures of the Old Testament, especially on many of the nar- 
ratives ; either regarding them as false, or as borrowed ; and ob- 
jecting to their anthropomorphic character ; also objecting to the 
account of man's place in creation, and of divine interference. In 
b. v. he continues his attack on the doctrines of both religions, 
chiefly so far as he considers them to be untrue ; and in b. vi. so 
far as he considers them to be borrowed, dragging to light the dif- 
ference which existed between Judaism and Christianity. In 
b. vii. the subject of prophecy and some other doctrines, as well 
as the ethics of Christianity, are examined ; and in b. viii, when 
the attack on Christianity is mainly over, a defence of paganism is 
offered by Celsus. 

A detailed analysis of Origen's treatise, which is intricate, will 
be found in Schramm's Analysis Patrum, vol. iv. 1782. Pres- 
sense's view of Origen's arguments is given, Hist. 2 e 86rie, t. ii. 
pp. 281-361. See also Lardner's Works, viii. 19. Ilase {Church 
History, § 51) refers to several German works which relate to 
Celsus. 

Note 15. p. 56. 

THE CHARGES AGAINST CHRISTIANS, AND CAUSEJ OF PERSECUTION, IN 
THE SECOND CENTURY. 

The learned Kortholt, Professor at Kiel, in his work, the Pa- 
ganus Obtrectator, she Liber de Calumniis Gentilium in Veteres 
Christianos (1703), has carefully collected references to the objec- 
tions raised by the Pagans against Christianity. He has arranged 
them according to the subjects, irrespective of the chronological 
order in which they were respectively suggested ; viz. (1) those 
which relate to the origin and nature of Christianity, such as its 
novelty, its alleged want of originality, &c. ; (2) false charges about 
public worship ; (3) false charges about life and morals. If we 
exclude on the one hand those charges which are gathered out of 
Celsus (in Origen), and on the other those from apologists later 
than the date of Porphyry, the charges between these limits, 



Lect. II.] NOTE 15. 4Q5 

which are learned from the apologists Minucius Felix, Theophilus 
(ad Autolycum), and Tertullian, exhibit the objections which were 
encountered in Rome, Syria, and North Africa, respectively. 
They chiefly belong to the prejudices adduced in the second and 
third of the classes made by Kortholt. Among the more intel- 
ligible objections which belong to his first class, are found the 
charges of the novelty of Christianity (ch. i. in his book), the su- 
perstitious character of it (ix. and x.), and the want of cultivation 
in its supporters (xi.). Among the prejudices about public wor- 
ship (class 2) in his work, we meet with the charge of ass-worship 
(in Tertullian and Minucius Felix, ch. xi.) ; sky and sun worship 
(ii. and iii.) ; priest and cross worship (iv. and vi.) ; and secret 
sacred rites (ix.). Among the false charges about life and morals 
(which form class 3), we meet with that of private and nocturnal 
meetings forbidden by law, and the Agapce (v.) ; Thyestean ban- 
quets (Theoph. and Tertull. ix.) ; secret insignia (xvi.) ; treason 
(vii.) ; and hatred of humanity (viii.). 

All these charges will be seen to be such as mark the transi- 
tion from a state of indifference to Christianity to that more dis- 
tinct comprehension of its nature which afterwards existed. Their 
character indicates a moment when the new religion was forcing 
itself on public attention as a secret organization ramifying through 
the Eoman world. In the main they resolved themselves into two 
heads; (1) the vulgar prejudices arising from ignorance; and (2) 
the alarm at the political danger arising from a vast secret society. 
The latter charges reappear in the works of later apologists ; but 
the former are peculiar to this special period, between the time 
of Celsus and of Porphyry. 

Among the vulgar prejudices thus named, the only two that 
need further mention are the charges of priest-worship and ass- 
worship. The former charge, named by Minucius Felix, ch. ix, 
and thus described here by a euphemism, may be seen in Kort- 
holt, b. ii. ch. iv. p. 319 ; it probably arose from the homage paid 
to the bishop on bended knee at ordination. The latter, taken 
out of Minucius Felix (ch. ii ), and Tertullian (Apol. 16), is more 
singular and puzzling even after the discussions by older authors 
which Kortholt cites, b. ii. ch. i. p. 256, &c. But the fact of the 
charge has been corroborated by the recent discovery in excava- 
tions made in some substructions on the Palatine hill, of a graffito 
or pencil-scratching, in which a person is worshipping toward a 
cross, on which hangs suspended a human figure with the head of 
a horse, or perhaps- wild ass, and underneath is the inscription 
"Alexamenus is Avorshipping God." A\c£nnevos o-f/Sere [sic foi 
crffierai] Qeov. It can hardly be doubted that it is a pagan 
caricature of Christian worship, embodying the absurd prejudice 
which Minucius names. A brief account of it may be seen in the 
Edinburgh JR.eview, No. 224, for October, 1859, p. 436, and more 
fully in Un Graffito Blasfemo nel Palazzo- dei Cesari (Civiltd Cat- 
lolica, serie iii. vol. iv. Eoma, 1S56). The difficulty that the in- 



406 NOTE 15. [Lect. It 

scription is in Greek, will be explained by the fact that the church 
of Rome was Greek as late as the time of the writings of the so- 
called Hippolytus. 

The other great class of objections to Christianity, which con- 
sisted in imputing the charge of treason, expressed itself in deeds 
as well as words, and was made the ground of the public persecu- 
tion of them. 

We cannot wonder that the profession of Christianity exposed 
persons to the suspicion of treason. When we add the fact that 
Christians declined obstinately to conform to the practice which 
had grown up, of performing sacrifice to the honour of the reign- 
ing emperors as the impersonation, of the dignity of the state ; and 
when we consider the organization among Christians, the league 
of purpose which was evident among them, we can understand 
how fully they laid themselves open to the charge of treason, the 
" crimen lassaa majestatis." Perhaps too at particular moments 
they were in danger of giving real ground for suspicion in refer- 
ence to this point. The warnings of St. Paul and St. Peter give 
ground for inferring that there was danger of this even in their 
times. (Rom. xiii. 1 seq. ; 1 Pet. ii. 13 seq.) 

A greater difficulty than discovering plausible grounds which 
may have created the suspicion of treason is, to find the causes 
why a people so tolerant as the Romans should exhibit so per- 
secuting a spirit against Christianity; but we must remember, 
first, that the idea as distinct from the practice of toleration was 
unknown ; and secondly, that the practice of toleration was only 
supposed to be obligatory when the particular religion had been 
licensed. 

The idea of man's universal rights, of universal religious free- 
dom and liberty of conscience, was alien to the views of the whole 
ancient world. Indeed it is of quite modern introduction. It was 
not known even in Christendom, not even in the protestant part 
of it, till the seventeenth century. It was Milton who first enun- 
ciated the principle in its breadth. The idea of individualism, 
though long in spreading, was created in germ by two causes; viz. 
the free spirit of independence introduced by the Teutonic system ; 
and the idea of the sacredness of the individual soul introduced 
through Christianity. If the highest end of man be to live for 
eternity, not to live for society, the individual is invested with a 
new dignity ; and we feel the impropriety of trespassing upon tho 
sphere for which each man is personally responsible. In the an- 
cient world however, where this idea was unknown, all the ele- 
ments of life, religion, and morals, were made subordinate to the 
political. The state was supreme. Looked at accordingly from 
the ancient point of view, a defection from the religion of the 
state could not appear otherwise than as a crime against the state. 
The Romans did certainly exercise religious toleration to the 
religions of nations which they conquered; and in this way the 
religion of the Jews was a tolerated creed, a religio licita ; but it 



Lect. II.] NOTE 16. 407 

was such for the Jews alone ; and deviation from the state religion 
was, as we know from the great lawyers, unlawful. Though 
doubtless from the abundance of foreigners who crowded to Rome, 
many foreign religious practices became common, yet a special 
decree of the senate was necessary before any Roman citizen could 
be allowed to join in the observance of any such foreign rites. 
When we consider the free use made by the Christians, for the 
purposes of worship and burial, of the catacombs, by which the 
plain in the neighbourhood of Rome is honeycombed, we may 
conjecture that the vigilance of the imperial police cannot have 
been strictly exercised ; yet occasionally severe laws were passed 
to repress the evil of the introduction of foreign sacred rites. We 
may thus accordingly understand the causes of the persecution of 
Christians, as we before understood the grounds of the prejudice 
against them. 



Note 1G. p. '61. 

MODERN CRITICISM ON THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 

Some account of the modern criticism on the book of Daniel 
has been introduced into the text of Lect. IT. (see pp. 60, 61,) and 
the chief recent writers on it have been enumerated (p. 60, note h ' J ). 
Also the refutation of one argument used against the authenticity 
of the book, viz. that drawn from the occurrence of Greek words 
in it, was given in a note on p. 60. 

The other arguments which have been advanced against it, in 
addition to those there named, are, (1) that the angel ology and 
ascetic doctrines are too recent to be of the time of Daniel ; (2) 
that the miracles are of a " grotesque " character, like those which 
balong tothe apocryphal books; (3) that the measure of the golden 
statue of Dura, sixty cubits by six, is irreconcileable with any 
theory of proportion suited to the human figure, and still more so 
with the canon of Assyrian art, as seen in their sculpture, and can 
apply only to an obelisk ; U) that Daniel has made honourable 
mention of himself ; (5) that the position of the book in the third 
part of the Jewish canon, the Cethubimor Ilagiographa, shows 
that it was written later than the captivity. 

The replies made to these objections are as follows : In refer- 
ence to No. (1), it is denied that the angelology and asceticism 
necessarily prove a late period, by referring to traces of them in 
earlier Hebrew literature : No. (2) that the difficulty which has 
reference to the character of the miracles is only one of degree; 
and that the greatness of a miracle is no absolute ground for dis- 
belief if miracles be once admitted : (3) the inferences about the 
statue are conceded, but reconciled with the text. As the word 
cbs (iii. 1) does not necessarily mean a statue (see Buxtorf s Lexi- 
con, sub voc.) : it is possible to conceive it to apply to an obelisk, 



408 NOTE 17. [Leot. II. 

the existence of which in Assyria is confirmed by recent excava- 
tions. (4) Daniel's honourable mention of himself is not improper 
when taken in its connexion. (5) The argument which relates to. 
the third division of the canon is a difficulty common to several 
other books, and depends on the theory that the principle of ar- 
rangement of the three parts of the canon was founded on the date 
of composition, and not on the subject matter, which is disputed. 

In reference to the definite character of the predictions in the 
book of Daniel, the difficulty stated in the text (p. 61), reply is 
easy. If the miraculous character of prophecy be admitted, the 
definite character, though a peculiarity, cannot be a difficulty. 
The definiteness too in this instance does not differ in kind, hardly 
even in degree, from the case of other prophecies, but must be 
admitted to be paralleled elsewhere, if the objector does not assail 
those equally by the same process. The pretence that the definite 
character ends at the reign of Antiochus is shown to be incorrect, 
by proving (1) that the prophecy about the Messiah (ix. 24-26) 
cannot refer to the Maccabean deliverers ; and (2) that the fourth 
empire predicted is the Koman, which thus would be equally 
future even to a writer of the Maccabean era. 

The further argument used in defence of the book, that the 
New Testament authenticates the authorship of Daniel, is neces- 
sarily only of value to those who admit, first, the authority of the 
New Testament, and who, secondly, allow that the New Testament 
writers never accommodate themselves on questions of criticism to 
the mental state of their hearers. The opponents of this view on 
tile contrary assert, that the quotations in the New Testament only 
affirm the predicate, not the subject; the truth of the theological 
sentiment quoted, not the literary question of the authorship of 
the book from which it is quoted. 

An instructive paper on the book of Daniel by Mr. "Westcott 
appeared in Smith's Biblical Dictionary, from which a few of the 
references to authors on Daniel (p. 60, note** 9 ) were taken; and 
another in Kitto's- Biblical Encyclopaedia by the lamented Haver- 
nick. 

Note 17. p. 64. 

THE REPLY OF EUSEBIUS TO HIEROCLES. 

In his book against Hierocles, Eusebins states (b. i.), that he 
refutes only that portion of the work which related to Apollonius 
of Tyana; referring to Origen's answer to Celsus for a reply to the 
remainder of it ; and discusses only the parallel of Apollonius and 
Jesus Christ. In b. i. he gives an outline of the argument of his 
opponent, with quotations, and states his own' opinion about Apol- 
lonius ; throwing discredit on the veracity of the sources of the 
memoirs; and proceeds to criticise the prodigies attributed to 
him, arguing that the statements are incredible, or borrowed, or 



Lect. II.] . NOTES 18, 19. 4QQ 

materially contradictory. Discussing each book in succession, he 
replies in b. i. to the statements respecting the early part of Apol- 
lonius's life ; in b. ii. to that which concerned the journey into 
India; in b. iii. to that which related to his intercourse with the 
Brahmins ; in b. iv. to his journey in Greece ; in b. v. to his intro- 
duction to Vespasian in Egypt; in b. vi. and vii. to his miracles ; 
and in b. viii. to his pretence to foreknowledge. He adds remarks 
on his death, and on the necessity of faith ; and repeats his opinion 
respecting the character of Apollonius. 



Note 18. p. 67. 
TnE FHILOPATRIS OF the pseudo-ltictan. 

This dialogue was held to be genuine by Fabricius; but Gesner 
disproved it, Be Philopatride Lucianco JJialotfo Di&sertatio, 1730. 
See also Meander's Church History, E. T. (Bohn) iii. 127, note. 

The work hardly merits an analysis. Critias, looking ill, is 
met by Triepho. 'After a little banter, in which Triepho makes 
fun of the gods by whom Critias swears, and of their history (§ 2- 
18), Critias. confesses that the cause that has made him pale is 
the hearing bad news at an assembly of Christians. Having first 
heard two Christian sermons, the one by a coughing preacher, 
who was proclaiming release from debt, the other by a threadbare 
mountaineer preaching a golden age, he had afterwards been per- 
suaded to go to a private Christian meeting ; and it was the predic- 
tion which he there heard of woes to the state which had so much 
frightened him, § 20-27. Triepho has not patience to hear him 
narrate the particulars. Another person enters, and the curtain 
falls. 

The theology of the dialogue is, if viewed on its negative side, 
the ridicule of heathen mythology and of Christian doctrines and 
habits; and on its positive, the proclamation of one God as the 
object of worship. The work exhibits internal evidence of a 
knowledge of Christian practices, § 20, &c, and Christian doc- 
trines, such as the Trinity, § 12 ; uses Christian phraseology, § 18 ; 
and calls Christians by the name given by Julian, Galilaaan, § 12. 

Note 19. p. 67. 

THE WORK OF JULIAN AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. 

It has been already stated that our knowledge of the contents 
of Julian's lost book is obtained from Cyril's reply to it ; the text 
of which is accordingly given in Spanheim's edition of Julian. It 
is supposed to have consisted of seven books ; but Cyril replies 
only to three. 

18 



410 NOTE 19. [Lect. II. 

In the brief account given in the text of Lect. II. no attempt 
was made to form a hypothetical restoration of Julian's work 
from the fragments, such as that which Pressense has attempted 
with regard to Oelsus ; but only a few of Julian's principles were 
presented concerning the following subjects: (1) on God; (2) on 
the Hebrew, and (3) the Christian religion. A few hints however 
toward such a scheme may not be uninteresting. If, as seems 
probable, Cyril took the statements of Julian in the order in which 
they stood in the now lost work, the plan of Julian's work may 
have been somewhat as follows. 

He proposed to institute a comparison between the Hebrew 
and Christian religions and literature on the one hand, and the 
Greek on the other. If we may judge from the purport of b. i. of 
Cyril's work, Julian laid himself open to an attack by maintaining 
the superior antiquity of heathenism, forgetting that the Hebrew 
system was older than the Greek. At least Cyril establishes this 
elaborately, and argues the direct derivation of many parts of the 
heathen system from the Jews. The argument on Julian's part 
seems to have been conducted by an examination of successive 
points in the Hebrew history and system. In the beginning the 
Hebrew cosmogony suggested an argument for the superiority of 
the Platonic theory over the Mosaic. (Oyril. b. ii.) Next he suc- 
cessively attacked the account of Paradise as a fable; entering 
upon both the probability of the story {Id. b. iii.) and the moral 
features of the Deity brought out in the narrative. He seems also 
to have passed from the idea of creation to that of providence, 
and to have dwelt on the inferiority of the Hebrew scheme as a 
theory of providence, in having an absence of inferior deities be- 
neath the supreme one; and. resists the idea of the obligation of 
all men to embrace one creed, inasmuch as they do not possess 
one character. {Id. b. iv.) Next, turning to the Mosaic moral 
law, he argued against its originality, except in relation to the 
sabbath ; and passing through several of the narratives of Jewish 
history, he pointed out Characteristics of anger in the Jewish con- 
ception of Deity ; and compared by instances the Greek legislators 
and kings with Jewish. {Id. b. v.) Next he seems to have passed 
from Judaism to Christianity, and attacked the miracles, and 
the Christian morals and practices; challenged the reasons for 
prophecy ; and rallied the Christians on accepting a religion de- 
rived from so insignificant a nation as the Jews. {Id. b. vi.) He 
seems next to have returned to the comparison of Greek and 
Hebrew warriors, and of Greek and Jewish science, and the 
educational value of the two literatures ; and reverted to the sub- 
ject of Christianity, by representing it as a deviation from the 
very religion on which it depended. {Id. b. vii.) He continued 
this argument by the special example of prophecy, examining 
several instances wherein he contended that Christians had aban- 
doned the Jewish sense of them. (Id. b. viii.) Next he seems to 
have continued a similar argument with regard to the Jewish 



Lect. II.] NOTE 19. £H 

typical system, and the utter dissimilarity of the Christian ideas 
from its purpose (Id. b. ix.) ; next to have assailed Christianity, 
by trying to show that there had been a similar development in 
Christianity itself, and a departure from its primitive form anal- 
ogous to that which Christianity bore to Judaism, alleging, incor- 
rectly, that St. John was the first to teach the divinity of Christ ; 
and instanced examples, objectionable in practice, such as the 
worship of martyrs' tombs ; and alleged against Christianity an 
eclectic spirit which had appropriated parts of the Jewish system 
but not the whole. (Id. b. x.) 

.The reader must however be apprised that the above scheme is 
entirely hypothetical. The objections of Julian are facts; the 
lacunas are filled up by conjecture. 

The general spirit. of Cyril's answer is the argumentum ad 
Jiominem ; showing that the same faults, even if true, are equally 
true of the Greek scheme of religion. 



LECTUBE III. 

Note 20. p. 89. 

ON THE LEGENDARY WOEK, ENTITLED " DE TELBTJS IMPO&TOEIBES." 

Full particulars concerning the chapter in literary history 
which relates to this work, will be found in Prosper MarchancTs 
JDictionnaire Eistorique, 1758 (vol. i. pp. 812-319), and more 
briefly in F. TV". Genthe's De Imposturis Bcligionum oreve Compen- 
dium, 1833. Both give lists of the earlier writers who have 
treated of the subject; among which the most useful will be found 
to be B. G. Struve, Dissertatio de Doctis Impostoribus, 1703 
(§ 9-23) ; De La Monnaie, Lettre sur le Pretendu Lhre; and Calmet, 
Dictionnaire, article Imposteur. 

The rumours concerning the existence of a booli with the title 
" De Tribus Impostoribus " commence in the thirteenth century. 
About the sixteenth, more definite but still unsatisfactory state- 
ments appear respecting its existence. Its authorship has been 
attributed to above twenty distinguished persons ; such as Fred- 
erick II, Boccaccio, Pomponatius, Bruno, Yanini, &c. ; the rea- 
sons for which in each case are explained in Marchand. De La 
Monnaie however wrote,- questioning the existence of the book. 
A reply to his letter respecting it was published in French at the 
Hague in 1716, which pretended to offer an analysis of the ancient 
work ; the falsehood of which however is shown by the Spinozist 
philosophy contained in it. Genthe in his tract, besides a literary 
introduction in German, republishes the French tract just named ; 
and also a second tract in Latin, equally a fabrication, bearing a 
slightly different title, De Impost uris Bcligionum, Lucianlike in its 
tone, which, by an allusion to Loyola (§ 20), cannot be older than 
the sixteenth century, and is -probably of German origin. Both 
writers conclude that the existence of the book in the middle ages 
was legendary. Renan (Averrocs, pp. 280, and 272-300), and 
Laurent {La Beforme, pp. 345-8), coincide in this conclusion. The 
title was a mot, not a fact. 

It is hardly necessary to state that the numerous writers who, 
like Kortholt, have adopted the title "De Tribus Impostoribus 1 ' 
for their books, have merely used the name in irony, and do not 
profess to give transcripts of the old work. 



LECTUEE IY. 

Note 21. p. 118. 

ON SOME TECHNICAL TEEMS IN THE HISTOEY OF UNBELIEF. 

There are a few terms, which are frequently used in reference 
to unbelief, of which it would be interesting to trace the meaning 
and history. A few notes in reference to this subject may both 
prevent ambiguity and throw some light on a chapter in the his- 
tory of language. The words alluded to are the following: 1. In- 
fidel; 2. Atheist; 3. Pantheist; 4. Deist; 5. tJatuealist ; 
6. Feeethinkee; 7. Rationalist; 8. Sceptic. 

1. Infidel. — This word began to be restricted as a technical 
term, about the time of the Crusades and throughout the 
middle ages, to denote Mahometan ; as being par excellence the 
kind of unbelievers with which Christians were brought into 
contact. Perhaps the first instance of its use in the more 
modern sense, of disbeliever generally, is in the Collect for Good 
Friday, " all Jews, Turks, infidels, heretics ;" which words were 
apparently inserted by the Keformers in the first Prayer Book 
(1547) ; the rest of the prayer, except these words, existing in 
the Latin Collect of the ancient Service-book from which it is 
translated. Ordinarily however, during the sixteenth century, 
it is found in the popular sense of unfaithful; a meaning which 
the increasing prevalence of Latin words was likely to bring into 
use. In writers of the seventeenth, the use of it in the sense of 
unbeliever becomes more common: an instance from Milton is 
cited in Richardson's Dictionary. In the beginning of the eight- 
eenth century it becomes quite common in theological writers in 
its modern sense ; and toward the end of the century was fre- 
quently appropriated to express the form of unbelief which existed 
in France ; a use which probably arose from the circumstance that 
the French unbelievers did not adopt a special name for their 
tenets, as the English did, who had a positive creed, (Deism,) and 
not merely, like the French, a disintegration of belief. 

2. Atheist. — This word needs little discussion. In modern 
times it is first applied by the theological writers of the sixteenth 
century, to describe the unbelief of such persons as Pomponatius ; 
and in the seventeenth it is used, by Bacon (Essay on Atheism), 



4-14 NOTE 21. [Lect. IV. 

Milton, (Paradise lost, b. vi.), and Bunyan (Pilgrim), to imply 
general unbelief, of which the disbelief in a Deity is the principal 
sign. Toward the end of the same century it is not unfrequently 
found, e. g. in KorthohVs Be Tribus Impostor ibus, 1680, to include 
Deism such as that of Hobbes, as well as blank Pantheism like 
Spinoza's, which more justly deserves the name. The same use is 
seen in Colerus's work against Spinoza, Arcana Atheismi Iievelata. 
Tillotson (serniM. on Atheism) ; and Bentley (Boyle Lectures) use 
the word more exactly ; and the invention of the term Deism in- 
duced, in the writers of the eighteenth century, a more limited 
and exact use of the former term. But in Germany, Reimannus 
(Ilistoria Univ. Atheismi, 1725, p. 437 seq.) and Buddeus (Be 
Atheismo et Superstitione, 1723, ch. iii. § 2), use it most widely, 
and especially make it include disbelief of immortality. Also 
Walch, Biblioiheca Theol. Selecta, 1757, uses it to include the Pan- 
theism of Spinoza, (vol. i. p. 676, &c.) This transference of the 
term to embrace all kinds of unbelief has been well compared 
with the extension of the term fiapfiapos by the Greeks. 11 The 
wide use of the term is partly to be attributed to the doubt which 
Christian men had whether any one could really disbelieve 
the being of a God, — an opinion increased by the Cartesian no- 
tions then common concerning innate ideas ; and whether accord- 
ingly the term Atheist could mean anything different from Deist. 
Compare Buddeus's Isagoge, p. 1203, and the chapter " An dentur 
Athei " in his work Be Atheismo. (ch. i.) By the time of Stapfer's 
work, Listit. Theol. Polem. 1744, the two terms were distinguish- 
ed ; see vol. ii. ch. vi. and vii. and cfr. p. 587. 

The term was subsequently applied to describe the views of 
the French writers, such as D'Holbach, who did not see the neces- 
sity for believing in a personal first Cause. In more modern times 
it is frequently applied to such writers as Comte; whose view is 
indeed atheism, but differs from that of former times, in that it is 
the refusal to entertain the question of a Deity as not being dis- 
coverable by the evidence of sense and science, rather than the 
absolute denial of his existence. The Comtists also hold firmly 
the marks of order, law, mind, in nature, and not the fortuitous 
concurrence of atoms, as was the case with the atheists of France. 

3. Pantheist. — One of the first uses of this word is by Toland 
in the Pantheisticon, 1720, where however it has its ancient poly- 
theistic sense. It is a little later that it passes from the idea of 
the worship of the whole of the gods to the worship of the entire 
universe looked at as God. 

This exacter application of it is more modern. It is now used 
to denote the disbelief of a personal first Cause : but a distinction 

11 The transition of the word miscreant from its original meaning of misbeliever 
(mecroyant, miscredente), to- its modern use as a mark of opprobrium, is a similar 
instance. This change is a proof of the instinctive association of the dependence 
of right conduct on right belief. It is about the time of Shakspeare that the change 
of meaning begins to appear. See Iiichardsoii's Dictionary, sub voc. 



Lect. IV.] NOTE 21. 415 

ought to be made between the Pantheism like that of Averroes, 
which regards the world as an emanation, and sustained by an 
anima mundi ; and that which, like the view of Spinoza, regards 
the sum total of all things to be Deity. This, distinction was 
noticed and illustrated in p. 107. The account of the word in 
Krug's Philosoph. Lexicon is worth consulting. 

4. Deist. — One of the first instances of the use of this word 
occurs in Viret, Epistr. Dedicat. du 2. vol de V Instruction Chre- 
tienne, 1563, quoted by Bayle, Dictionnaire, (note under the word 
Viret.) It is appropriated in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury by Herbert to his scheme, and afterwards by Blount {Oracles 
of Reason, p. 99), to distinguish themselves from Atheists. In 
strict truth, Herbert calls himself a Theist; which slightly differs 
from the subsequent term Deist, in so far as it is intended to con- 
vey the idea of that which he thought to be the true worship of 
God. It is theism as opposed to error, rather than natural reli- 
gion as opposed to revealed:, whereas deism always implies a 
position antagonistic to revealed religion. But the distinction is 
snon lost sight of; and Nichols (1696) entitles his work against 
the deists, Conference with a TJieist. Towards the close of the 
seventeenth century, and in the beginning of the eighteenth, the 
Christian writers sometimes even use Deist as interchangeable 
with Atheist, as shown above. It is also used as synonymous 
with one of the senses of the word Naturalist. See below, under 
the latter word ; and cfr. Stapfer, Inst. Polcm. vol. ii. p. 742, with 
p. 883. 

5. Naturalist. — This word is used in two senses ; an objec- 
tive and a subjective. Naturalism, in the former, is the belief 
which identifies God with nature ; in the latter, the belief in the 
sufficiency of natural as distinct from revealed religion. The 
former is Pantheism, the latter Deism. In the former sense it is 
applied to Spinoza and others ; e. g. in Walch's Biblioth. Theol. 
Select, i. 745 seq. In the latter sense it occurs as early as 1588 in 
France, in the writings of J. Bodin {Colloa. Heptapl. 31. Kem. 
2) ; and towards the end of the seventeenth century both in Ger- 
many and England, e. g. in Kortholt's De Trib. Impost. 1680; and 
the Quaker, Barclay's Apologia, 1679, p. 28. At the end of the 
seventeenth century, and in the eighteenth, the name was applied 
in England to deists, e. g. in Nichols's Conference with a Theist, 
pref. § 15) ; and in Germany it became a commonly known word, 
owing to the spread of the Wolffian philosophy. Stapfer {Instit. 
Theol. Polem. 1744, vol. ii. p. 881), using Wolffian phraseology, 
divides this latter kind of naturalism into two kinds, viz. philoso- 
phical and theological. The philosophical kind maintains the 
sufficiency of natural religion, and disbelieves revealed ; the theo- 
logical kind holds the truth of revelation, but regards it as un- 
necessary, as being only a republication of natural religion. The 



41(5 NOTE 21. [Lect. IV. 

adherent of the former is the " Naturalist" of Kant; the latter his 
"pure Eationalist " ( Verg. Religion Innerhalb, &c,)-, the former 
the Deist, the latter the Rationalist, of a school like that of "Weg- 
scheider, &c. (See Lect. VI.) 

Ofr. Bretschneider's Handfouch der Dogmatik, i. 72. note. 
Halm, De Rationalismi Indole (quoted by Rose on Rationalism, 2d 
ed. Introd. p. 20) names writers who make a third kind of natur- 
alism, viz. Pelagianism ; but this is rare. 

G. Freethinker. — This term first appears toward the close of 
the seventeenth century. It is used of Toland, " a candid Free- 
thinker," by Molyneux, in a letter to Locke 1697 {Locheh Works, 
fol. ed. iii. 624) ; and Shaftesbury in 1709 speaks of "our modern 
free-writers," Works, vol. i. p. 65. But it was Collins in 1713, in his 
Discourse of Freethinking, who first appropriated the -name to ex- 
press the independence of inquiry which was claimed by the deists. 
The use of the word expressed the spirit of a nation like the Eng- 
lish, in which, subsequently to the change of dynasty, -freedom to 
think and speak was held to be every man's charter. Lechler has 
remarked the absence of a parallel word in other languages. The 
French expression Esprit fort, the title of a work of La Bruyere, 
does not convey quite the same idea as Freethinker. Esprit ex- 
presses the French liveliness, not the reflective self-consciousness 
of the English mind of the eighteenth century: the fort is a relic 
of the pride of feudalism ; whilst the free of the English Free- 
thinker implies the reaction against it. The English term smacks 
of democracy; the French carries with it the' notion of aristoc- 
racy. (Lechler, Gesch. des Engl. Deismus, p. 458.) There is no word 
to express the English idea in foreign languages, except the liter- 
al translation of the English term. Even then, in French the 
expression la libre pensee has changed its meaning ; since it is now 
frequently used to describe the struggle, good as well as evil, of 
the human mind against authority. It thus loses the unfavour- 
able sense which originally belonged to the corresponding English 
expression. 

7. Rationalist. — The history of the term is hard to trace. The 
first technical use of the adjective rational seems to have been 
about the seventeenth century, to express a school of philosophy. 
It had probably passed out of the old sense of dialectical (cfr. 
Brucker's Hist. Phil. iii. 60.), into the use just named; which we 
find in Bacon, to express rational philosophy, as opposed to 
empirical, (see a quotation from Bacon's Apophthegms in Rich- 
ardson's Dictionary, subvoc); or, as in North's Plutarch, 1657, p. 
984, for intellectual philosophy a3 opposed to mathematical and 
moral. The word Rationalist occurs in Clarendon, 1646 {State 
Papers, vol. ii p. 40), to describe a party of presbyterians who 
appealed only to " what their reason dictates them in church and 
state." Halm {De Rationalismi Indole) states that Amos Come- 



Lect. IV.] NOTE 21. 4^7 

nius similarly used the term in 1661 in a depreciatory sense. The 
treatise of Locke on the Reasonableness of Christianity caused 
Christians and Deists to appropriate the term, and to restrict it to 
religion. Thus, by "Waterland's time, it had got the meaning of 
false reasoning on religion. ( Works, viii. 67.) And, passing into 
Germany, it appears to have become the common name to express 
philosophical views of religion, as opposed to supernatural. In 
this sense it occurs as early as 1708 in Sucro, quoted by Tholuck, 
Vermischt. Schriften, ii. pp. 25, 26, and in Buddeus, Isagoge, 1730, 
pp. 213 and 1151. It is also used often as equivalent to natural- 
ism, or adherence to natural religion ; with the slight difference 
that it rather points to mental than physical truth. 

The name has often been appropriated to the Kantian or crit- 
ical philosophy, in which rationalism was distinguished from- nat- 
uralism in the mode explained under the latter word. (See Kant's 
Religion Innerlialb der Grenzen der Blossen Vernunft, pp. 216, 17.) 
During the period when Rationalism was predominant as a method 
in German theology, the meaning and limits of the term were 
freely discussed. The period referred to is that which we have 
called in Lect. VI. p. 230 the second subdivision of the first of the 
three periods, into which the history of German theology is there 
divided; viz. from 1790-1810 ; occupying the interval when the 
"Wolffian philosophy had given place to the Kantian, and the phi- 
losophy of Fichte and Jacobi had not yet produced the revival 
under Schleiermacher. This form of rationalism also continued to 
exist during the lifetime of its adherents, contemporaneously with 
the new influence created by Schleiermacher. (See Lect. VI.) 
The discussion was not a verbal one only, but was intimately con- 
nected with facts. The rationalist theologians wished to define 
clearly their own position, as opposed on the one hand to deists 
and naturalists, and on the other to supernaturalists. The result 
of the discussion seemed to show the following parties: (1) two 
kinds of Supernaturalists, (a) the Biblical, such as Bernhardt, re- 
sembling the English divines of the eighteenth century ; 13 (13) the 
Philosophical, sometimes called Bational Supernaturalists, as the 
Kantian theologian Staiidlin: (2) two kinds of Rationalists, (a) the 
Supernatural Rationalists, like Bretschneider, who held on the 
evidence of reason the necessity of a revelation, but required its 
accordance with reason, when communicated ; (3) the pure Ration- 
alists, like "Wegscheider, Bohr, and Paulus, who held the suffi- 
ciency of reason ; and, while admitting revelation as a fact, re- 
garded it as the republication of the religion of nature. It is this 
last kind which answers to the " theological naturalist," named 
above, under the word Naturalist. It is also the form which is 
called Rationalismus vulgaris (as being opposed to the later scien- 
tific), though the term is not admitted by its adherents. This 

12 It is hardly necessary to state, that when the tone of the English theological 
writers of the eighteenth century is described as rationalism, it is used in a good 
sense. (E. g. Es&a/ys and Reviews, Ess. vi.) The writers of that century would 
be classified under the school of supernaturalists here named. 

18* 



418 NOTE 21. [Lect. IV. 

rationalism stands distinguished from naturalism, i. e. from "phi- 
losophical naturalism " or deism, by having reference to the Chris- 
tian religion and church ; but it differs from supernaturalism, in 
that reason, not scripture, is its formal principle, or test of truth ; 
and virtue, instead of " faith working by love," is its material 
principle, or fundamental doctrine. A further subdivision might 
be made of this last into the dogmatic (Wegscheider), and the crit- 
ical (Paulus). Ofr. Bretschneider's Dogmatik, i. 81, and see Lect. 
VI. Also consult on the above account Kahnis, p. 168, and 
Lechler's Deismus, p. 193, note; Hagenbach's Dogmengesch. § 279, 
note. 

This account of the term being the result of the controversy as 
to the meaning of the words, it only remains to name some of the 
works which treated of it. 

The dispute on the word Rationalism is especially seen at two 
periods, (1) about the close of the last century, when the super- 
naturalists, such as Bernhardt and Storr, were maintaining their 
position against rationalism. One treatise, which may perhaps be 
considered to belong to this earlier period, is J. A. H. Tittmann's 
Uebcr Siqjernaturalismus, Rational ismus, und Athcismus, 1816; (2) 
in the disputes against the school of Schleiermacher, when super- 
naturalism was no longer thrown on the defensive. This was 
marked by several treatises on the subject, such as Staiidlin's 
Geschichte des Rationalismus und Siqiernaturalismus 1826, (see 
the definitions given in it, pp. 3 and 4 ;) Bretschneider's remarks 
in his Dogmatik (i. pp. 14, VI, 80 ed. 1838); and Historische 
Ikmcrkungen Uebcr den Gcbrauch der Ausdrucke Rational, und 
Supernat. (Oppositions- Schr if t. 1829. 7.1); A. Hahn, De Ratio- 
nalismi qui dicitur Vera Indole, 1827, in which he reviews the 
attempts of Bretschneider and Stalidlin to give the historic use of 
the word; Bohr's Briefe Uebcr Rationalismus, pp. 14-16; Paulus's 
Resultate avs dcnNcuestcn Versnch des Supernat. Gegen den Ratio- 
nalismus, 1830; Wegscheider 1 s Inst. Thcol. Christian <03 Dogmatic®, 
(7th ed. 1833. §§ 11, 12, pp. 49-67), which is full of references to 
the literature of the subject. The controversy was aggravated and 
in part was due to the translation of Mr. II. J. Rose's Sermons on 
Rationalism. He was answered by Bretschneider in a tract, in 
which that theologian entered upon the defence of the rationalist 
position. Mr. Rose (Introd. to 2d ed. 1829, p. 17) enters briefly 
upon the history of the name. Ivrug (Philos. Lexicon) also gives 
many instances of its use in German theology. 

To complete the account it is only necessary to add, that it is 
made clear by Lectures VI. and VII. that if subsequent theological 
thought in Germany to the schools now described, be called 
Rationalism for convenience by English writers, the term is then 
used in a different sense from that in which it is applied in speak- 
ing of the older forms. 

8. ScErac. — This term was first applied specifically to one school 



Lect. IV.] NOTE 21. 419 

of Greek philosophers, about B. C. 300, followers of Pyrrho of 
Elis (see Bitter's Hist, of Phil. E. T. iii. 372-398; Staiidlin's Ge- 
schichte des Scepticismus, vol. i ; Tafel's Geschichte und Kritih des 
Skcpticismus, 1836 ; Donaldson's Greek Lit. ch. xlvii. § 5) ; and 
also to a revival of this school about A. D. 200. (See Sitter, Id. iii. 
253-357 ; Donaldson, ch. lvi. § 3.) The tenet was a general disbelief 
of the possibility of knowing realities as distinct from appearances. 
The term thus introduced, gradually became used in the specific sense 
of theological as distinct from philosophical scepticism, often with 
an indirect implication that the two are united. Walch restricts 
the name Sceptic to the latter kind. Writing about those who 
are called Indifferentists {Bibl. Theol. Select, i. 976), he subdivides 
them into two classes ; viz. those who are indifferent through lib- 
erality, and those who are so through unbelief. The former are 
the " Latitudinarians," the latter the Sceptics above named. Cfr. 
also Buddeus, Isagoge, pp. 1208-10. In more recent times the 
term has gained a still more generic sense in theology, to express 
all kinds of religious doubt. But its u*e to express philosophical 
scepticism as distinct from religious has not died out. In this 
sense Montaigne, Bayle (cfr. Staiidlin's Gesch. des Scept. p. 201), 
Huet, Berkeley, Hume, and De Maistre, were Sceptics ; i. e. scep- 
tical of the certitude of one or more branches of the human facul- 
ties. Sometimes also it is used to express systems of philosophy 
which teach disbelief in the reality of metaphysical science ; e.g.. 
the positive school of Comte ; but this is an ambiguous use of the 
term. For philosophical scepticism may be of two kinds ; viz. the 
disbelief in the possibility of the attainment of truth by means of 
the natural faculties of man ; and the disbelief of the possibility 
of its attainment by means of metaphysical, as distinct from phys- 
ical, methods. The former is properly called Philosophical Scep- 
ticism, the latter not so. Pyrrho in ancient times, and Hume in 
modern, represent the former; the Positivists of modern times, 
and perhaps the Sophists of the fifth century B. C, represent the 
latter. It is hardly necessary to repeat that the philosophical 
scepticism proper of Berkeley and Hume must not be confounded 
with religious. They maybe connected, as in Hume,, or discon- 
nected, as in Berkeley or De Maistre. See on this subject Morell's 
Hist, of Philos. i. p. 68, ii. ch. vi. 

On the subject of the words explained in this note see, besides 
the works referred to, "Walch's Bibl. Theol. Select, i. ch. v. sect. 5, 
6, 7, 11, and iii. ch. vii. sect. 10. § 4. 1757: Pfaifs Introd. in 
Hist. Theol. lib. ii. b. iii. § 2. 1725 : Stapfer's Inst. Theol. Polem. 
ii. ch. vi, vii, x ; iv. ch. xiii. 1744 : Reimannus' Hist. Univ. Ath. 
sectio i'. 1725: J. F. Buddeus's He Atheismo, 1737, ch. i. and ii: 
J. F. Buddeus's Isagoge, 1730, pp. 1203-1211: Lechler's Gesch. 
des Heismus, 1841 ; Schlussbemerkungen, p. 453 seq. : J. Fabricius, 
1704, Gonsid. Var. Gontrov. p. 1 : Staiidlin's Gesch. des Scepticis- 
mus wrzuglich in Rudcsicht auf. Moral, und Religion. 1794 : J. F. 



420 NOTE 22. [Lect. IV. 

Tafel's Gesch. und Kritih des Skepticismus und Irrationalismvs, 
with reference to Philosophy, 1834. 



Note 22. p. 186. 
woolston's discoukses oisr MIRACLES. 

In addition to the notice of these Discourses given in the text, 
it may be well to give a brief account of their contents. 

In Discourse I. Woolston aims at showing (a) that healing is 
not a proper miracle for a Messiah to perform, and that the 
fathers of the church understood the miracles allegorically : (j3) 
that a literal interpretation of miracles involves incredibility, as 
shown in the miracle of the expulsion of the buyers and sellers 
from the temple, the casting out devils from the possessed man of 
the tombs, the transfiguration, the marriage of Cana, the feeding 
the multitudes : (y) the meaning of Jesus when he appeals to mir- 
acles. In Discourse II. he selects for examination the miracle of 
the woman with the issue of blood, and also her with the spirit 
of infirmity ; also the narrative of the Samaritan woman, the tri- 
umphal entry into Jerusalem, the temptation, the appearance of 
the spirits of the dead at the resurrection. In Discourse III. he 
selects the cursing of the fig-tree, and the miracle of the pool of 
Bethesda. It may be allowable to give one illustration of the 
coarse humour with which he rationalizes the sacred narrative in 
his explanation of this last miracle. He says of the healed man, 
" The man's infirmity was more laziness than lameness ; and Jesus 
only shamed him out of his pretended idleness by bidding him 
to take up his stool and walk off, and not lie any longer like a lub- 
bard and dissemble among the diseased." It will be perceived, 
that if the coarseness be omitted, the system of interpretation is 
the naturalist system afterwards adopted by the old rationalism 
{ratio nalismus vulgaris). ' In Discourse IV. he selects the healing 
with eye-salve of the blind man, the water made into wine at 
Cana; where he introduces a Jewish rabbi to utter blasphemy, 
after the manner of Celsus; and the healing of the paralytic who 
was let down through the roof, which, as being one of the most 
characteristic passages of Woolston, Dean Trench has selected for 
analysis. (Notes on Miracles, Introduction, p. 81.) In Discourse 
V. he discusses the three miracles of the raising of the dead; and 
in Discourse VI. the miracle of Christ's own resurrection. 

His conclusion (in Disc. I.) is, that "the history of Jesus, as 
recorded in the evangelists, is an emblematical representation 
of his spiritual life in the soul of man ; and his miracles figura- 
tive of his mysterious operations;" that the. four Gospels are 
in no part a literal story, but a system of mystical philosophy or 
theology. 



LECTURE V. 

Note 23. p. 178. 

TIIE LITEEAEY COTEEIES OF PAEIS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUET. 

An account of these coteries may be seen in Schlosser's Hist 
of Eighteenth Century, (E. T.) vol. i. ch. ii. § 4; the particulars of 
which chapter he has gathered largely from the Autobiography 
of Marmontel, and from Grimm's Correspondence. See also 
Sainte-Beuve's Papers {Portraits, vol. ii.) on Espinasse and Geof- 
frin. These coteries were specially four : viz. (1) that of Madame 
Pe Tencin, mother of D'Alembert, which included Fontenelle, 
Montesquieu, Mairan, Helvetius, Marivaux, and Astruc ; (2) of 
Madame Geoffrin, who took the place of De Tencin. It included, 
besides some of the above, Poniatowsky, Frederick the Great 
when in France, the Swedish Creutz, and Kaunitz, the whole of 
the Voltaire school, and at first Eousseau; (3) of Madame Du 
Deffant, contemporary with Geoffrin. This was less a coterie of 
fashion, and more entirely of intellect; and included Voltaire, 
D'Alembert, Henault, and Horace Walpole when in Paris. Later 
.M Ue . Espinasse took the place of Deffant, and this became the 
union-point for all the philosophical reformers, D'Alembert, Di- 
derot, Turgot, and the Encyclopaedists; (4) of D'Holbach, con- 
sisting of the most advanced infidels. 



Note 24. p. 198. 

THE TEEM IDEOLOGY. 

As the term Ideology has lately been employed in a novel the- 
ological sense, (e. g. Essays and .Reviews, Ess. iv.), and as it-is em- 
ployed in these lectures in its ordinary sense, as known in meta- 
physical science, it may prevent ambiguity to state briefly the 
history of the term. 

The word Ideology, as denoting the term to express metaphys- 
ical science, seems to have arisen in the French school of De 
Tracy at the close of the last century. Cfr. Krug's Philos. Lexi- 
con, sub voc. 



^22 NOTE 25. [Lect. V. 

As early as Plato's time metaphysics was the science of j'Seai, 
i. e. of forms; but the word t'Sea implied the objective form in 
the thing, not the subjective conception in the mind. It was Des- 
cartes who first appropriated the word Idea in the subjective 
sense of notion. This arose from the circumstance that in his 
philosophy he sought for the idea in the mind, instead of the es- 
sence in the thing contemplated, as had been the case in mediaeval 
philosophy. In the following century Locke's inquiries, together 
with Berkeley's speculations, caused metaphysics to become the 
science of ideas. The representative theory of perception which 
was held, increased, if it did not cause, the confusion : all knowl- 
edge was restricted to ideas. The subsequent attempts of Oon- 
dillac and others to carry forward the analysis of the formation 
of our ideas still farther, caused metaphysics to be restricted to 
them alone. This apparently was the reason why De Tracy gave 
the name of Ideology to the science of metaphysics in the Me- 
mens oV Ideologic™ 

It was the sceptical notion of the unreality of the objects as 
distinct from the ideas, partly the offshoot of a sensational phi- 
losophy, like that of De Tracy, partly of the spiritual philosophy 
of Germany, which farther caused the term Ideological to slide 
into the sense of ideal ; a meaning of the term which the employ- 
ment of it in English in recent theological controversy seems 
Lkely to make common. 



Note 25. p. 195. 

THE WORKS OF DR. GEDDES 

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, free thought began 
to manifest itself in England under a rationalistic form, in a Ro- 
man catholic, Dr. Geddes, who lived 1737-1802. (See Life by 
Mason Good, 1804.) Vol. i. of his Translation of the Bible ap- 
peared in 1792; vol. ii. in 1797; and his Critical Remarks (vol. 
i.) in 1800. His free criticism is seen in discussing the character 
of Moses (pref. to vol. i. of Transl.); the slaughter of the Ca- 
naanites (pref. to vol. ii.) ; Paradise {Grit. Rem. p. 35); the re- 
marks on Genesis xlix. (Id. p. 142); on the Egyptian plagues (p. 
182); on the passage of the Red sea (p. 200). .As soon as the 
first volume was published the Catholic bishops silenced him. 
Geddes was a believer in Christianity ; but felt so strongly the 
deist difficulties, that he sought to defend revelation by explaining 
away the supernatural from the Jewish history, and inspiration 
from the Jewish literature. His views, so far as they were not 
original, were probably derived from the incipient rationalistic 

13 In the lime of Nnpoleon I. the circumstance that the ideological philosophers 
sympathised with the Revolution, in opposition to his regime, led to an application 
of the term as synonymous with Republican. 



Lect. V.] NOTE 26. 423 

speculations of Germany, though he quoted almost none of the 
German except Michaelis and Herder. His position in the history 
of doubt is with the early rationalists, not with the deists. A 
writer of somewhat similar character, Mr. Evanson, a unitarian, 
wrote a critical attack on the Gospels, The Dissonance of the Four 
generally received Evangelists, in lb05. 



Note 26. p. 196. 

THE WORKS OF CONYERS MIDDLETON. 

Dr. Conyers Middleton lived from 1683 to 1750. In 1749 he 
published A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers of the Early 
Church ; "by which it is shown that we have no sufficient reason 
to believe, upon the authority of the primitive fathers, that any 
such powers were continued to the church after the days of the 
apostles." He was attacked by Dodwell, Church, and Chapman, 
who described the work as discrediting miracles. The object of 
it was to place the church in the predicament of denying altogether 
the authority of the fathers, or else of admitting the truth of the 
Eomish doctrine of miracles. Gibbon, when young, chose the 
latter horn of the dilemma. A list of Middleton's works in 
chronological order will be found in vol. i. of his Miscellaneous 
Works (1752). The one which created disputes in theology 
besides the above was, An Anonymous Letter to Waterland, 1731, 
in reference to his reply to Tindal's work ; which was answered 
by Bishop Pearce. His posthumous work on The Variations or 
Inconsistencies which are found among the Four Evangelists, 
(Works, vol. ii. p. 22) ; his essay on TJie Allegorical Interpretation 
of the Creation and Fall (ii. 122) ; and his criticism in 1750 on 
bishop Sherlock's Discourses on Prophecy, may cause Middleton to 
be regarded as a rationalist. See his Works, ii. 24, 131, and iii. 183. 



LECTUEE VI. 

Note 27. p. 213. 

ON PIETISM IN GERMANY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

The person who commenced the religious movement after- 
wards called Pietism, was John Arndt (1555-1621), who wrote 
The True Christian, a work as useful religiously, as Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's Progress, or Doddridge's Religion in the Soul. 

Spener followed (1635-1705). The private religious meetings 
which he established about 1675, Collegia Pietatis, were the 
origin of the application of the name Pietism to the movement. 
One of his pupils was the saintly A. H. Francke, whose memoir 
was translated 1837. Paul Gerhardt, the well known author 
of the German hymns, also belonged to the same party. The 
university of Halle became the home of Pietism ; and the orphan- 
house established in that town was renowned over Europe. The 
opposition of the old Lutheran party of other parts of Germany 
produced controversies which continued till about 1720; for an 
account of which, see Weismann, Mem. Eccl. Hist. Sacr. 1745, p. 
1018 seq. 

Pietism propagated its influence by means of Bengel in Wur- 
temburg and the university of Tubingen, and in Moravia through 
Zinz'endorf. Arnold and Thomasius belonged to this party at the 
beginning of the eighteenth century. (Etinger at Tubingen, 
Crusius at Leipsic, and, to a certain extent, Buddeus also, partook 
of the spirit of Pietism. It manifested a tendency to religious 
isolation ; and in its nature combined the analogous movements 
subsequently carried out in England by Wesley and by Simeon 
respectively. 

A brief account of it is given in Hase's Church History, § 409 : 
and for a fuller account, see Schrockh, Chr. Kirchcngesch. vol. viii. 
pp. 255-91 ; Pusey on German Theology, part i. (67-113) ; part. ii. 
ch. x ; Amand Saintes, Crit. Hist, of Rationalism, E. T. ch. vii. 
Spener's character and life may be seen in Canstein's memoir of 
him ; and in Weismann, pp. 966-72. A philosophical view of 
Pietism, as a necessary stage in the development of German re- 
ligious life, is given by Dorner in the Studien und KriWken, 1840, 
part ii. 137, TJeber den Pietismus. Kahnis, who himself quotes it, 



Lect. VI.] NOTES 28, 29. 425 

{Hist, of Germ. Prot.) E. T. p. 102, regards Pietism as ministering 
indirectly to rationalism ; much in the same way as bishop Fitz- 
gerald criticised the 
Aids to Faith, p. 49, &c. 



Note- 28. p. 224. 

CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOLS OF POETEY IN GEEMANY. 

The materials for understanding the awakening of literary 
tastes in the last century in Germany, through Lessing's influence, 
are furnished by Schlosser, History of the Eighteenth Century. 
See vol. i. ch. iii. E. T. for the period from the Pietists to Lessing ; 
and ch. v. in reference to the Deutsche Bibliothek, and also vol. 
ii. ch. ii. § 3. See also Vilmar's History of German Literature 
(translated and abridged by Metcalfe). 

It may facilitate clearness to name the classification of schools 
of German poetry and taste, which is given in the last-named 
work. They are divided into five classes: viz. I. that which was 
antecedent to Lessing, which is subdivided into (1) the Saxon 
school of Gottsched ; and (2) the Swiss school of Bodmer, and of 
Wieland in his early manner ; which was connected with the Got- 
tingen school of Haller, Hagedorn, and Klopstock, together with 
the Stolbergs and Voss. II. Lessing, and writers influenced by 
him, such as (1) Kleist and the Prussian group; (2) Wieland in 
his second manner, and J. Pan! Richter ; (3) Kotzebue, who was a 
mixture of Wieland and Lessing. In these two periods Klopstock, 
Wieland, and Lessing, were the intellectual triumvirs. III. The 
" Sturm und Drang " period ; the Weimar school with its second lit- 
erary triumvirate, Herder, Goethe, Schiller. IV. The later schools : 
(1) the romantic, viz. the two Schlegels, Novalis, Tieck, Uhland, 
Fouque; (2) the patriotic of the liberation wars, Arndt and 
Koerner. V. The modern school of disappointment and uneasy 
reaction against the absolute government, II. Heine and Griin. 

It is an interesting psychological problem to trace the close 
analogy between the schools of poetical taste and the correspond- 
ing character in the contemporary criticism of ancient literature, 
the speculative philosophy, and the theology. 

Note 29. p. 225. 

" THE WOLFENBUTTEL FEAGMENTS. 

It has been stated in the text that these were Fragments, 
which Lessing published in 1774 and the following years, of a 
larger work which he professed to have found in the library of 
Wolfenbiittel, where he was librarian. They, were published in 



426 NOTE 29. [Lect. VI 

the third of the series of works, Beitrage zur GeschicJite und Lite- 
raturaus den ScMtzen tier Herzogliclien Bibliothek zu Wolfenbuttel, 
under the title, Fragmente Eines Ungenannten Herausgegeben von, 
G. E. Lessing. 

After Lessing's death, 0. A. E. Schmidt published further 
Fragments, under the title Uebrige noch Ungedruclcte JVerJce des 
Wolfenkitttelschen Fragmentisten. Ein Naclilass von G. E. Less- 
ing. 

The authorship of the Fragments was suspected at the time by 
Hamann; but it remained generally unknown, and became as 
great a secret as the authorship of the Letters of Junius, until 1827, 
when the question was discussed by Gurlitt in the Leipziger Lite- 
ratur-Zeitung, No. 55, and proof was offered that the author was 
Keimarus of Hamburg. 

The result of this and subsequent investigations is as follows. 
The original work of Eeimarus, from which the Fragments were 
taken, remains in MS. in the public library of Hamburg. It was 
entitled Apologie oder Schutz-Schrifb far die verniinftigenVerehrer 
Gottes. When written, it was shown only to intimate friends. 
Lessing was allowed to take a copy, and showed the MS. to Men- 
delssohn in 1771. Lessing wished to publish it entire; but the 
censorship would not give the imprimatur. Consequently it came 
out in fragments among the series of contributions from the Wol- 
fenbiittel library, which were free from the censorship. The pre- 
tended discovery of them in the library was a mere excuse ; and 
there is proof in Lessing's remains that he admitted the fact. See 
the statement of these facts in Lessing's Leben, by Guhrauer, (of 
which, vol. i. is by Danzel; vol. ii. by Guhrauer,) vol. ii. b. iii. eh. 
iv. p. 133, note 3, and b. iv. p. 141." 

Several writers, subsequently to Gurlitt's examination of the 
question of authorship, have written, either on the question of the 
authorship of the Fragments, or on the contents of the larger 
work from which they are selections. In the Zeitschrift filr die His- 
torische Theologie for 1839, part iv. is an article composed from 
W. Korte's life of Thaer, in reference to the former question. 
Also Dr. W. Klose examined the original MS. in the Hamburg 
library, and published an account of it, with considerable extracts, 
ii several of the numbers of the same journal, Niedners Zeitschrift, 
1850, (part iv ; 1851, part iv ; 1852, part iii.) It is in the preface 
( Vorberichf) to the first of these parts that the account of Rei- 
marus's own mental history is given, to which allusion was made 
in the text of Lecture VI. (p. 225.) 

During the last year the question has been made the subject 
of a monograph by the celebrated Strauss. He had heard of the 
existence of a copy of the original MS. in private hands at Ham- 
burg, and proceeded to collate it with the view of publication. 

14 Those rofere^e.es to Guhmner were kindly Buc^OBted by the Rev. E. TT. TTan- 
sell, Praelector <>(' Theology in Magdalen College, who studied the Fragments a few 
years ago for lectures which lie delivered Sn Lessing. 



Lect. VI.] NOTE 30. 427 

He found it to differ in some respects from the Fragments pub- 
lished by Lessing and Schmidt. He did not consider the hitherto 
unpublished parts of the work sufficiently important, either in a 
literary or historical point of view, to merit publication in extenso ; 
but contented himself with stating the results of his study of it in 
a small work, H. S. Eeimarus und seine Schutz-Schrift, &c. 1861. 
It contains a brief account of the literary question of the Frag- 
ments, and of Beimarus's life and stand-point ; also an analysis of 
the unpublished parts of the work, written with the clearness 
which characterises all Strauss's didactic works. It would appear 
from the analysis that the pieces printed by Lessing were not only 
some of the ablest, but some of the least offensive of the whole 
work. The concluding pages contain some very interesting re- 
marks, in which Strauss contrasts the criticism of the eighteenth 
century with that of the present day ; the characteristics of the 
former being, that it charges imposture on the scripture writers ; 
that of the latter, that it admits their honesty, but explains away 
their statements and opinions by reference to psychological and 
historical phenomena. 

In addition to the sources given above, information is con- 
tained in the following works : Schrockh's Christ Kirch en gesch. vi. 
275 ; Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Century, E. T. vol. ii. 
266 seq. ; Hagenbach's DogmengescJiichte, § 275 notes, (where ref- 
erence is made to Guhrauer's BodirCs Heptaplomeres, 1841, p. 257 
seq.;) Conversations - Lexicon, art. Eeimarus; Amand Saintes' 
History of Rationalism, E. T. p. 84 ; Kahnis, Id. p. 145 seq. ; K. 
Schwarz, Lessing als Theolog, of which ch. iv. is on the Fragmen- 
ten-streit ; Strauss's Kleine Schriften, 1861 ; Lcssing's Wcrlce, xii. 
503. (ed. Lachmann.) 



Note 30. p. 242. 

SCHLEIEUMACriER's EARLY STUDIES. 

It may be interesting to trace more fully the parallel noticed 
in the text between the development of Plato's thoughts and 
Schleiermacher's early studies. 

Though it is impossible to arrange the dialogues of Plato in 
the chronological order in which they were composed, so as to be 
able to study the master in his successive styles, yet several sys- 
tems of arrangement, founded on different principles, seem to co- 
incide so far as to render it probable that Plato's great theory of 
ideas or forms grew upon him through these stages : viz. (1) it was 
viewed as a fact of mind, an innate conception of forms (e. g. in 
Meno) ; (2) as useful in guiding perplexed minds to truth, and 
sifting philosophical doctrines by means of the dialectical process, 
e. g. in the Theaotetus and Parmenides ; (3) as representing an ob- 



428 NOTE SI. [Lect. VI. 

jective reality, a true cause in nature external to the mind, as well 
as an hypothesis in science (e. g. in the Kepublic) ; (4) as having 
a mystical connexion with divinity, and furnishing a cosmogony. 
Whether this passage, from the subjective conception to the ob- 
jective reality, be really or only logically the order of develop- 
ment in Plato's ideal theory, it is clear that the growth of Schleier- 
macher's mind admits of comparison with this supposed order of 
development in Plato ; though there is a slight variation in the 
steps of the process. Schleiermacher went through three stages, 
(1) the philosophy of Jacobi, (2) of Fichte, and probably (3) of 
Schelling; from which he learned respectively, (1) to have faith 
in our intuitions, (2) to construe the outward by the inward, (3) 
to believe in the power of the mind to pass beyond the inward, 
and apprehend absolute truth. If the resemblance to the above 
account of Plato were exactly perfect, the love. of a philosophy like 
Fichte's ought to have preceded that of Jacobi. Schelling's in- 
fluence, it ought to be noted, is very slight on Schleiermacher, com- 
pared with that of the others. The traces of it which appear are 
perhaps resolvable into a similarity to Jacobi's system. 



Note 31. p. 244. 

SCHLEIEEllACnER's THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 

The theological works of Schleiermacher are doctrinal, critical, 
and pastoral. The latter consist chiefly of the sermons which he 
delivered in Berlin. The critical works are mentioned in a foot- 
note to p. 248; but it may be useful to give a brief notice of his 
doctrinal works, of which some are referred to in the text. 

The earliest was the Reden iiber die Religion an die Gebildeten 
unter ihrcn Verachtern, 1799, (Discourses on Eeligion addressed 
to the educated among its despisers,) which ought not to be read 
in earlier editions than the fourth (1829), the notes of which con- 
tain explanations. The object of these discourses was to direct 
attention away from the study of religion in its outward manifesta- 
tions, to its inward essence ; which he showed to lie neither in 
knowledge nor in action, but in feeling. See especially Discourse 
II. Tiber das Wesen der Religion. For the effect which the dis- 
courses created, see Neanders testimony, quoted by Kahnis, Hist, 
of P rot. E. T. p. 208. 

The works which succeeded the Reden were the following : in 
1800, the Monologen (Soliloquies); in 1803, Grundlinien einer 
Krit'ik der bisherigen Sittenlehre (Critique on previous EthicaJ 
teaching); in 1806, Die WeinaeMsfeier. (Christmas Eve) ; in 1811, 
the Kurze Darstellung des Theologischen Studiums (Plan of Theo- 
logical Study ; — lately translated), which gave rise to the branch 
now common in German universities, called Theologische Encyclo- 



Lect. VI. NOTE 32. 429 

pa&ie™ ; in 1821, Der Christliche Glaube nach den Grundsateen der 
Eoangelischen Kirche (the Christian Faith on the principles of the 
Evangelical Church), which was improved in the subsequent 
editions. 

As the Eeden breathed the spirit of Jacobi, the Monologen 
breathed that of Fichte. They study the ethical, as the former the 
religious side of man ; the action of the personal will as distinct 
from the feelings of dependence. The dialogue of the Wevhnachts- 
feier showed Christ as the means of effecting that oneness with 
the absolute which the two former works had shown to be neces- 
sary. 

In the Glaubens-lehre, Schleiermacher gives a general view of 
dogmatic theology, viewed from the psychological side, i. e. its 
appropriation by the Christian consciousness. He studies (1) man's 
consciousness of God, prior to experience of the opposition of 
sin and grace ; next, after being aware of such an opposition, as 
(2) the subject of sin, and (3) the subject of grace ; or, in theologi- 
cal language, the states of innocence, of sin, and of grace. Each 
of these is subdivided in spirit, even when not in form, in a three- 
fold manner; describing respectively the condition of man, the at- 
tributes of God, and the constitution of the world, as they relate 
to the above three named states. The subjective and psychologi- 
cal character of the inquiry is seen in the fact, that when treating 
the second of these subdivisions, — the Divine attributes, — he does 
not study them as peculiarities of God's nature, but as modifica- 
tions of the mode in which we refer to God our own feeling of 
dependence. This subjective tendency illustrates the influence of 
Fichte and Jacobi on Schleiermacher. 

The contrast is an interesting one between a dogmatic treatise 
of the schoolmen, of the reformers, and of- Schleiermacher. The 
first commences with the Deity and his attributes, and passes to 
man : the second generally begins with the rule of faith, the Bible ; 
and then, passing to the Deity, proceeds mainly after the scholastic 
fashion : the third begins and ends-with the human consciousness, 
and its contents. 



Note 32. p. 252. 

ON SOME GERMAN CRITICAL TnEOLOGIAXS. (DE WETTE, EWALD, 
ETC.) 

Some of the theologians of the critical school which is described 
in the text, deserve a more full notice than was possible in the 
foot-notes to the Lecture. 

De Wette (1780-1849) was educated at Jena, under Griesbach. 

15 For a description of the division of Theological study implied by this term, see 
Oredner's Introduction to Kitto's Bib/. Cyclop.; and the translation of Tholuck'a 
Lectures, given in the American Bibliuth. Sacra, 1844. 



430 NOTE 32. |Xect. VI. 

He was made Professor at Berlin in 1810, but was deprived in 
1819, in consequence of the Prussian government having opened 
a letter of condolence written by him to the mother of Sand, the 
assassin of the dramatist Kotzebue. (For the history of the ex- 
cited state of the German students at this time, see K. Raumer's 
Eddagogik, vol. iv. translated.) In 1826 he was made Professor 
at Basle. An interesting life of him is given in the Bibliotheca 
Sacra for 1850. His most important works are, his Einleiiung 
ins Alt. und Neu. Test. ; Lelirbuch der Dogmatik, 1819 ; his New 
Translation of the Bible (1839) ; and Commentaries on several 
parts of Scripture. On his doctrinal views see Ivahnis, p. 231 seq. 
He is said to have been a man of -sweet and amiable character ; 
and indeed he appears to be so in his writings. It has been re- 
marked, as a proof of his singular fairness, that he not only can- 
didly states the opinions of an opponent, but even sometimes 
confesses his inability fully to refute them. 

Along with De Wette ought to be classed a great number of 
distinguished men, most of whom wrote parts of the Commentary 
which he designed under the name of Exegetisches Ilandbuch. 
They were mostly critics rather than writers on doctrine, and 
represent the modified state of thought of his later life; but still 
maintain, for the most part, his critical stand-point in reference to 
the scriptures ; and therefore, though contemporary with the new 
Tubingen and other schools described in Lecture VII, which have 
arisen since Strauss's criticism, in that which we called the third 
period of our sketch, they really belong to the school of critics of 
the older or second period. Such are, or were, Gesenius, Knobel, 
Hirzel, Hitzig, Credner, Tuch, E. Meier, Hupfeld, and Stahelin. 
See Am. Saintes, part iL ch. xi. 

H. Ewald, born 1803, became Professor at Gottingen 1831. 
In 1837 he was one of the seven professors who sacrificed their 
position when the new king of Hanover, Ernest, interfered with 
the constitution. From 1838 to 1848 he was professor at Tu- 
bingen: since 1848 at Gottingen. His works are partly on the 
oriental languages, and partly on theology. Among the latter the 
chief are, Die Poelischen Buclier des Allen Test. 1835 ; Die Pro- 
j)heten des Alten Dundes,- 1840 ; and the Geschichte des VolJces Is- 
rael, 1842-50 ; a work which, whatever may be thought of the the- 
ological aspects of it, if regarded in respect of scholarship, poetio 
appreciation, and grandeur of generalization, is one of the most 
remarkable books ever produced even in Germany. (Renan has 
based upon it the most brilliant of his essays, ess. ii. in the Etudes 
dSIIist. Eeligieuse.) His works on the New Testament are partly 
directed against the views of the new Tubingen school. He dif- 
fers from the older critical school of De Wette, in applying him- 
self more exclusively to the Semitic literature; and cannot be 
classed with them in any other way than that he represents the 
effort of independent criticism, linguistic and historic; removed 
from the dogmatic school, and also from the later forms of critical. 



Lect. VI. ] NOTES 33, 34. 43 J_ 

Note 33. p. 255. 

THE NAME JEnOVAH. 

The name mm is written Jehovah, by transferring to it the 
vowel points of the word Adonai, isSx , which the pious scruples 
of the Jews led them to substitute for it. It was probably read 
Yahveh. In reference to the meaning of El, and Jehovah, see 
Gesenius's Lexicon on the words bs (p. 45. Engl. Transl.), and 
nim (p. 337) ; also the word hajah, mn, (p. 221.) See likewise 
Hengstenberg's Authentie. des Pentateuches, i. 222 seq. ; especially 
p. 230, where he shows that jahveh, m.T, is derived by regular 
analogy from the future of the verb hajah, min (= havah, mn). 
See also M. Nicholas's Etudes Crit. sur la Bible, pp. 115, 163; and 
the article Jehovah in Smith's Biblical Dictionary. 

Note U. p. 25G. 

TnE USE OF TnE NAMES OF DEITY IN THE COMPOSITION OF 
HEBREW PPwOPEIi NAME3. 

A curious list of these is given by Dr. Donaldson. (Christian 
Orthodoxy, pp. 235, 6.) 

Examples of names before the age of Saul, compounded with 
El, are seen in El-k&n ah, El-\, Sanm-el, Abi-el. When Saul reigns 
we find the name Jah or Jehovah appear, in Jeho -nathan, Ahi-jah, 
Je&id-iah; and during the regal period in the list of kings, Jos- 
iah, Jeho-ahaz, Jeho-i-akim, Zedek-iah ; and among the prophets, 
lsa-iah, Jerem-iah, Mica-iah, Jeho-sheah. After the fall of 
Judah we find the name El reappear; e. g. Ezeki-eZ (= Hezek-iah), 
Dani-e£, Micha-e/, Gabri-e£, isV-iashib, Shealti-<?Z. After the cap- 
tivity the name Jah recurs; e. g. Nehem-iaA, Zephan-iah, Zechar-. 
iah, Malach-zV&A. The name El-i-jah (= my God is Jah) is an in- 
stance of a word compounded with both names. 

Donaldson tries to generalize from the above to the effect, 
that, previously to the age of the early kings, proper names com- 
pounded with El were prevalent; and in. the regal and prophetic 
age, those compounded with Jah ; again, after the fall of Judah, 
and in the captivity, those with El ; and after the captivity, with 
Jah. But the selection is too limited to admit of such a generali- 
zation being satisfactory. It does however prove the knowledge 
of the twofold conception implied by the use of the names. 



LECTURE VII. 

Note 35. p. 264. 

THE HEGELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

The purpose of this note is to supply references to sources for 
the study of Hegel's philosophy ; and also to point out the parallel 
and contrast in the central thought and tendency of the philoso- 
phies of Schelling and Hegel. 

The most intelligible account of Hegel's .system is given by 
Morell, History of Philosophy, ii. 161-196; and the best gener- 
al view of its tendencies, especially in reference to theology, is 
contained in on instructive article by E. Scherer, in the Rev. des 
Deux Mondes for Feb. 15, 1861, from which assistance has been de- 
rived in this lecture. The student will also find great help in 
Chalybaiis's Hist, of Spec. Philos. ch. xi-xvii (translated 1854) ; 
and A. Vera's Introduction a la Phil, de Hegel, 1855 ; together 
with his French translation of Hegel's Logic. (Vera is one of the 
few Italians who understand Hegel.) The Philosophic der Gc- 
schichte, and Geschichte der Philosophic are the two most intelligible 
of Hegel's works ; the former of which is translated into English ; 
but the study of his Logic is indispensable, for seeing the applica- 
tions of his method, as well as for appreciating his metaphysical 
ability and real position. 

Schelling and Hegel both seek to solve the problems of phi- 
losophy, by starting a priori with the idea of the absolute ; but in 
Schelling's case it is perceived by a presentative power (intellectual 
intuition), and in Hegel's by a representative. The former facul- 
ty perceives the absolute object ; the latter the absolute relation, 
if such a term be not a contradiction. In each case the percipient 
power is supposed to be " above consciousness ;" i. e. not trammelled 
by those limitations of object and subject which - are the con- 
ditions of ordinary consciousness. In both systems a kind of three- 
fold process is depicted, as the law or movement according to 
which the absolute manifests itself. 10 Sir W. Hamilton has shown 

i« Hegel used to claim that his doctrine was merely giving expression to the an- 
cient speculations of Heracleitus concerning the union of opposit'es. It is probable 
that the fundamental idea wan the same ; but Hes^el supplied an interpretation and 
application of the principle which the ancient philosopher could not contemplate. 
Both in truth commitled the same fundamental mistake, of making the mind the 
measure of thiigs. The uuiou of oppositca is au act of thought, not a fact relating 
to tilings. 



Lkct, VII ] NOTE S6. 433 

the inconsistencies of Schelling's system, in criticising that of 
Cousin, who was his great exponent ; see Dissertations, ess. i. (re- 
printed from the Edinburgh Review, 1829) ; and Mr. Mansel has 
extended a similar analysis to Fichte and Hegel. (Bampton Lec- 
tures, ii. and iii; and article Metaphysic in Encyclop. Britann.\lQth 
to^.^ ed. p. 607, &c.) See also Remusat De la Philosophic Allem'ande, 
Introduction.) Yet a grand thought, even though, psychological- 
ly speaking, it be an unreal one, lies beneath the awkward termi- 
nology of the systems of Schelling and Hegel ; and their method 
has influenced many who do not consciously embrace their philos- 
ophy. The effect produced by Schelling is the desire to seize the 
prime idea, the leau ideal of any subject, and trace its manifesta- 
tion's in the field of history ; a method which is seen in the French 
historic and critical literature of the followers of Cousin in the 
reign of Louis Philippe. (See Note 9, and the references given in 
Note 44.) The spirit produced by Hegel, is the desire to realise 
the truth contained in opposite views of the same subject ; to view 
each as a half truth, and error itself as a part of the struggle to- 
ward truth. This spirit and method are seen in such a writer as 
Kenan, and is clearly described in the passages quoted from Sche- 
rer and others in Note 9. 



Note 3G. p. 271. 

THE CHRISTOLOGY OF STRAUSS. . 

The f.-llowing extract from Strauss's work conveys his Christ- 
ology. 

"This is the key to the whole of Christology, that, as subject 
of the predicate which the church assigns to Christ, w r e place, 
instead of an individual, an idea ; but an idea which has an exist- 
ence in reality, not in the mind only, like that of Kant. In an 
individual, a God-man, the properties and functions which the 
church ascribes to Christ contradict themselves; in the idea of 
the race they perfectly agree. Humanity is the union of the two 
natures ; — God become man ; the infinite manifesting itself in the 
finite, and the finite spirit remembering its infinitude: it is the 
child of the visible mother and the invisible father, Nature and 
Spirit : it is the worker. of miracles, in so far as in the course of 
numan history the spirit more and more completely subjugates na- 
ture, both -within and around man, until it lies before him as the 
inert matter on which he exercises his active power : it is the sin- 
less existence^ for the course of its development is a blameless 
one, pollution cleaves to the individual only, and does not touch 
the race or its history. It is Humanity that dies, rises, and as- 
cends to heaven ; for, from the negation of its phenomenal life, 
there ever proceeds a higher spiritual life ; from the suppression of 

19 



434: NOTE 37. [Lbct. VII. 

its mortality as a personal, rational, and terrestrial spirit, arises 
its union with the infinite spirit of the heavens. By faith in this 
Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, man is justified 
before God ; that is, by the kindling within him of the idea of 
humanity, the individual man participates in the divinely human 
life of the species. Now the main element of that idea is, that the 
negation of the merely natural and sensual life, which is itself the 
negation of the spirit, is the sole way to true spiritual life. This 
alone is the absolute sense of Ohristology. That it is annexed to 
the person and history of one individual is a necessary result of 
the historical form which Christology has taken." Leben Jesu, 
vol. ii. § 151. (pp. 709, 10. 4th ed. 1840) ; in the English trans- 
lation, vol. iii. p. 433. 



Note 37. p. 273. 

STEAUSS. 

A few facts concerning the life and writings of Strauss may be 
interesting. 

He was born in 1808, and was educated at Tubingen and Ber- 
lin. He was Repetiteur at Tubingen, in 1835, when he published 
his Leben Jesu, described in the text of Lect. VII. In 1837 he 
.published his Streit-schriften, or replies to his critics. In 1839 he 
was elected Professor of theology at Zurich, an appointment 
which produced such popular indignation that it was cancelled, 
and a change of government was caused by it. In 1 840 he pub- 
lished Die Christliche Glaubenslehre im Kampfe mit der modernen 
Wissenschaft dargestellt ; in which, after an introduction concern- 
ing the history of opinions on the relation of the two, he discussed 
the principles of Christian doctrine, such as the Bible, Canon, Evi- 
dences, &c. and next the doctrines themselves^ viz. (part i.) on 
the divine Being and His attributes, as an abstract conception ; 
(part ii.) on the same, as the object of empirical conceptions in its 
manifestation in creation, &c. See Foreign Quart. Rev. No. 54. 
1841; and C. Schwarz's Gesch. der n. Theol. b. ii. ch. i. He pub- 
lished also Monologen in dem, Freihafen, translated 1848 ; Solilo- 
quies on tlie Christian Religion, its Errors, and Everlasting Truth. 

In 1848, the revolutionary year, he was elected to theWurtem- 
burg Parliament; and took the conservative side, to the surprise 
of his constituents. He has subsequently lived chiefly at Heil- 
bronn, engaged in literary labours ; mostly writing the lives of 
sceptics, or persons connected with free thought whose fate has 
been like his own. Among these have been, a sketch of Julian, 
1847, intended probably as a satire on the-romantic reaction con- 
ducted by the late king of Prussia ; a Life of Schubart, 1849, a 
Swabian poet of the last century; one of Maerklin 1851, his own 
early friend; one of N t Fris.chlin, 185G, a learned German of the 



Lect. VII. I NOTE 38 435 

sixteenth century; a life of Ulric von Hiitten, 1858; and Ge- 
sprdche von Hutten, 1861 ; also Eleine Schriften, 1861 ; and a work 
on Beimarus, 1862, concerning which see Note 29. Some of these 
works are reviewed in the Nat. Bev. Nos. 7 and 12. 



Note 38. p. 273. 

THE KEPLIES TO STBAUSS. 

Schwarz gives an interesting account of the various replies to 
Strauss, and of the works written by various theologians to sup- 
port their own point of view against his criticisms. Gcsch. der n. 
Theol. p. 113 seq. * 

The work was criticised, — 

I. From the old school of orthodoxy, (a) by Steudel, Strauss's 
own teacher, in a work called Vorlaujig zu Beherzigenden zur 
Beruhigung der Gemuthen. (/3) From the new orthodoxy, by 
Hengstenberg, in the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung . (y) From the 
school which formed the transition between this and that of 
Schleiermacher by Tholuck, in Glaubwurdigkeit der Evangel istfien 
Geschichte, 1837. 

II. From the school of Schleiermacher, (a) in Neander's Leben 
Jesu, (j3) in Ullmann's Studien und Kritiken, 1836. part iii. re- 
printed as Historisch oder Mythisch. 

III. By the Hegelians ; 1. from the " right" of the party (using 
the illustration drawn from the distribution of political parties in 
the foreign parliaments), (a) by Goschel in the work Von Gott, 
dem Henschen und dem Gottraenschen, 1838 ; (/3) by Dorner in the 
Geschichte der Person Christi, 1839. (y) by Gabler and Bruno 
Bauer, who at that time w r as on the side of orthodoxy : 2. from 
the Hegelian ''centre" in Schaller's Der Eistorischer Christus und 
die Philosophic, 1838; 3. from the "left," (a) by Weisse, Die 
Evangelische Geschichte Tcritisch und philosophisch bearbeitet, 1838 : 
(/3) by Wilke, Der Ur-evangelist ; both of whom regard St. Mark's 
as the primitive evangile ; and (y) by Bruno Bauer, Eritik der 
Synoptiker, 1842, when he had changed to the opposite side of the 
Hegelian school : (S) by Luetzelberger ; (e) by A. Schweizer ; 
both, of whom wrote on St. John's Gospel. Several of the latter 
were not intended to be replies to Strauss, but attempts .to recon- 
sider their own position in relation to him. This was particularly 
the case in reference to the works which were written by the Tu- 
bingen school^ (see next note,) of which Schwarz gives a descrip- 
tion, p. 153 seq. 



436 N0TE 3D t LECT - VII « 

Note 39. p. 278. 

THE TUBINGEN SCHOOL. 

The leader of the historico-critical school which bears this 
name, was 0. Baur (1792- 1860), author of various works on the 
history of doctrine, and on church history both doctrinal and crit- 
ical. His work against the Roman catholic theologian Hoehler, 
which first made him noted, was Gegensatz des Protestanti&mus 
und Katholicismus nach den principien and Eavpt-dogmen der 
beiden Lehrbegriffe, 1833. An account of his works is given in 0. 
Schwarz's Gesch. der neuest. Theol. p. 165. The following may be 
here specified : his work on the history of the doctrine of the 
atonement, Die Lehre von der Versohnung, 1S38 ; also Lehrbuch der 
Christlichen Dogmengeschichte, 1845, and Die ChristUche Kirche 
der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, 1853 ; the last part of which has been 
published since his death. Some interesting remarks, comparing 
him with Strauss and Schleiermacher, (though hardly fair to the 
last,) appeared in the National Rev. Jan. 1861. See also the 
sketch by NefFtzer in the Revue Germanique, vol. xiii. parls 1 
and 2. 

The other members of the school besides Baur have been 
Schwegler, the commentator on Aristotle's Metaphysics, and author 
of a Roman History (died 1857); Zeller, also a writer on Greek 
philosophy, now Professor of philosophy at Marburg ;. whose ap- 
pointment to Berne in 1847 has been elsewhere stated (Note 42) 
to have caused a similar excitement to that of Strauss to Zurich ; 
Koestlin, Professor of aesthetics at Tubingen ; and Hilgenfeld, 
Professor of theology at Jena, who is the best living representa- 
tive of the modified form which the school has now assumed. 
Respecting these theologians, see the notes which Stap has affixed, 
in the Revue Germanique, vol. ix. p. 560, &c. to a French transla- 
tion of a part of Schwarz's Geschichte. 

Concerning this school see Baur's Die Tubinger Scliule, 1859. 
The organ of it from 1842-57 was the Theologische Jahrhuc/ier., 
edited by Baur. Since it ceased to be published, Hilgenfeld has 
created a new journal, the Zeitschrift f'dr Wissenschaj'tliche Theo- 
logie, which receives the support of critics not directly of the Tu- 
bingen school, such as Hitzig and Knobel. Perhaps Schnecken- 
bi'irger ought to be ranked with the same school ; and Gfrorer 
also, author of a work on Philo, 1831 ; but he differed in holding 
the authenticity of St. John's Gospel ; and in 1846 became a R<> 
man catholic, and Professor at Freiberg. See also a paper in Von 
Sybel's Hist. ZeiUchr. for 1860, part iv. translated in Biblioth. Sacr. 
Jan. 1862. The Tubingen school has met with able opponents, 
e. g. Thiersch, Dorner, Ewald, Bleek, Reuss, and Hase. 



lect. vii.i note 40. 437 

Note 40. p. 281. 

THE GERMAN THEOLOGIAN ROTIIE. 

Concerning this theologian, now Professor at Heidelberg, see 
0. Schwarz's Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, p. 279 seq. The 
cause why the remarks in the text are so brief in regard to Kothe 
is, that the writer has not been able to see his more important works, 
which are out of print ; and accordingly he derives his knowledge 
of him at second hand. 

Rothe's two most important works are, Die Anf tinge der Christ- 
lichen Kirche, 1837, and Theologische Ethic, 1845. An account of 
the former is given in the often-quoted article by Scherer {Rev. des 
Deux Mondes, Feb. 15, 1861), pp. 848-860. It appears to view the 
Christian church from its ideal side, to absorb the individual in 
the constitution, to show that Christendom is the object of Chris- 
tianity, an institution the great means of embodying the doctrines ; 
but that, as society becomes fermented by its spirit, the office of 
Christianity is fulfilled by the state, and the beau ideal would be a 
society where the church is the state. It is a view similar to that 
of Coleridge in his Church and State, or of Dr. Arnold in his work 
on the Church. Mr. F. C. Cook, in Aids to Faith (p. 159), has 
given some interesting illustrations of this point. 

The second of Rothe's works, the Ethic, is briefly-described in 
a previously-cited article in the Westminster Review for April, 
1857. Like the former it starts with the idea of the identity of 
ethics and religion. Regarding personality or the moral relations 
as the central fact of existence, it surveys material creation under 
this aspect. Next it discusses the moral and religious history of 
man, as means of enabling the personal being to subordinate to 
himself all the forces without or within him. The object appa- 
rently is to show, that the spiritual element is not an intrusion, 
but the normal development of nature or providence ; and the 
moral society, the State, the normal development of the religious 
society, the Church. Rothe's later views have hardly been de- 
veloped in system. According to him theology is theosophy ; phi- 
losophy can work out a theology from the consciousness. 

It is probable that the writer of these lines is unintentionally 
doing injustice, through having to trust to secondhand information, 
to one who is regarded in Germany as belonging to the highest or- 
der of scientific theologians ; though perhaps the interesting ac- 
count of C. Schwarz leaves little to be desired. 

Rothe, in accordance with his wish to strengthen orthodox 
theology by an independent philosophy, and not to support it by 
material agency, has lately taken part politically on the liberal 
side, in some questions connected with the church constitution of 
Baden. (See Colani's JVouvelle Revue de la Theologie, Aug. 1862.) 









438 NOTE 41. , [Lect. VII. 



Note 41. p. 285. 

TIIE MOST MODERN SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN 

GERMANY. 

The object of this note is to carry on the history of philosophy 
and theology to a more recent date than was necessary in the text. 

The idealist school of philosophy reached its highest point 
with Hegel ; and subsequently there has been as great a reaction 
against this mode of speculation, as the contemporaneous theolo- 
gical one in religion. 

The philosopher who was directly or indirectly the cause of 
the realist tendency was Herbart (1776-1841), who succeeded 
Kant at KOnigsberg, and afterwards was Professor at Gottingen. 
Concerning his system, see MorelPs History of Philosophy, ii. 206, 
&c. Chalybaiis, eh. iv. and y. He followed out the material, as 
distinct from the formal, system of the Kantian philosophy, and 
strove to develope it. 

The schools of modern Germany may be reckoned as four: — 

(1). The young Hegelian school ; e. g. of the younger Fichte, 
which, though professedly idealistic, and adopting Hegel's method, 
is really affected largely by realistic tendencies, and seeks for a 
philosophy of matter as well as form. See Taillandier in Revue 
ties Deux Monties for 1853, vol. iii. p. 633 ; and also Oct. 1858 ; 
Morell's History of Philosophy, ii. 216, &c. Kahnis, p. 252. This 
school manifests decidedly realistic tendencies in Kuno Fischer, 
"Weisse, and Branis. 

(2.) That which shows a tendency to approach the subject of 
mental phenomena from the physiological side, in Drobisch, "Waitz, 
and Yolkmann, somewhat in the manner of the English writer 
Herbert Spencer. 

(3.) A school decidedly materialist, e. g. Yogt, Moleschott, and 
Biichner. See Taillandier, Rev. tie's Deux Mondes, Oct. 1858. 

These three tendencies form a gradation from the ideal, and 
approach the real, until at last the ideal itself is destroyed. The 
other tendency, if such it may be called, stands apart, and is akin 
to the older ideal ones. It is (4.) that of Schopenhauer (1788- 
1860), and tries to solve the problem of existence from the side 
of the will, instead of the intellect, and bears a remote resem- 
blance to that of Maine de Biran. His system has long been be- 
fore the public, but since his death has been much discussed. It 
has been explained by Frauenstadt. It is also well described in 
the Westminster Review, April, 1853. 

We now pass from the schools of philosophy to theology. 

"We have implied that there are three great schools of it in 
Germany ; the JSTeo-Lutheran, the Mediation school, and the Tu- 
bingen ; ancl have seen that they are each in course of transition 
into slightly new forms in younger hands. The " Keo-Lutheran- 



Lect. VII.] NOTE 42. 439 

ism " has assumed a more ecclesiastical position, which has been 
called " Hyper-Liitheramsm." The " Mediation" school of Schleier- 
macher is replaced by a newer form, modified by Hegelianism in 
Dorner. It remains to add, that the Tubingen school is giving 
place to another, of which 0. Schwarz himself is a representative 
— a kind of derivation from the Tubingen school and that of De 
Wette. Its organ is the Protestantische Kirchenzeitung ; and to 
it are said 17 to belong Dr. Dittenberger, court preacher at Weimar, 
C. Schwarz, who holds the same position at Gotha ; Ellester of 
Potsdam, Sydow of Berlin, and Schweizer of Zurich. Their posi- 
tion seems to be more ethical and less evangelical than the mem- 
bers of the party of free thought in the protestant church of 
France. 

Note 42. p. 289. 

TABLE EXHIBITING A CLASSIFICATION OF GEEMAN THEOLOGIANS. 

The following classification of the tendencies of German theo- 
logical thought, and of the chief theological writers, is merely a 
tabular arrangement of the statements already made in the text 
and notes of Lectures YI. and VII. A systematic view, in addi^ 
tion to the description given in the Table of Contents, is likely to 
be useful to the student ; and this must be the excuse for the ap- 
parent boldness shown in attempting such a scheme. The list is 
not offered as a complete arrangement; but it is hoped that it in- 
cludes nearly all the important writers. It is based mainly on the 
account which German writers themselves have given of their 
fellow-countrymen ; the references to which were given in the 
Preface, and in the notes to Lectures YI. and VII. Particulars 
respecting the lives and works of the various theologians may be 
found also in Hagenbach's Dogmengesdiichte, part v. notes; in 
Vapereau's Diet, cles Contemp. ; and some notices of the older ones 
are given in Mr. Pose's work on German Protestantism, 2d ed. ; 
and in Winer's Handbuch der Theologischen Literatur. 

" This statement is taken from a paper on the history of German Theology, in 
the Spectator, May 24, 1862. 



440 



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444 NOTE 43. [Lbct. VII. 

Note 43. p. 289. 

THE MODERN THEOLOGY OF SWITZERLAND AND HOLLAND. 

It will be observed, that no notice has been taken in the text, 
of the modern theology of Switzerland and Holland. It may be 
desirable therefore to suggest an outline here. 

The Theology of Switzerland. — The materials for the ac- 
count of it are scanty and disjointed. Since the reform of the 
Swiss universities during the present century, theological thought 
has chiefly taken the colour of the adjacent countries, Germany or 
France, in the respective universities where those languages are 
spoken. In the church of Geneva, about a quarter of a century 
ago, there seem to have been two parties, similar to those in the 
French protestant church: one professing the old Calvinistic or- 
thodoxy, which had degenerated into semi-Socinianism ; the other, 
the result of a'revival of biblical truth and spiritual religion, under 
such pastors as D'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation, and 
recently Gaussen, the writer on Theopneustie. A movement was 
commenced under Vinet of Lausanne, which may be considered 
to be the only native school which Switzerland has produced. It 
was a .mixture of science and earnestness, founded chiefly on a 
combination of Pascal and Schleiermacher. Concerning Vinet, 
see a very just article in the North British Review, No. 42, August 
1854; and see below, Note 46. Scherer was 'a friend of Vinet, 
but has since changed his views, or> as some would think, devel- 
oped logically their results, and has long left his professorship at 
Geneva, and acts with the new liberal school in the French pro- 
testant church. See Note 46. 

German Switzerland has been connected with Germany rather 
than France. The teaching at the university of Basle was moulded 
by De Wette, who. was made professor there in 1826, a few years 
after his removal from Berlin. Its character, however, expressed 
the more orthodox and moderate views of his later years. The 
instructive writer Hagenbach, professor there, belongs to the 
'.' mediation school " of theology, and is a worthy representative 
of its learned and devout spirit. Zurich possessed a teacher, Us- 
teri, belonging to the school of Schleiermacher ; and others, whose 
tone rather resembled that of the critical school of De Wette, or 
of the Tubingen school. The well-known critics Hitzig and 
Knobel, were formerly its professors ; and at present Schweizer is 
there, concerning whom see Note 41. A few years after Strauss 
had published his noted work, he was elected, as stated before, 
theological professor at Zurich, but the appointment was cancelled 
by a revolution of the people. See the Address of Orelli (trans- 
lated 1844). The appointment of Zeller of the Tubingen school to 
Berne, created a. similar excitement. In the proceedings of the 
Evangelical Alliance at Geneva, 1861, professor Riggenbach, of 



Lect. VII.] NOTE 43. 44.5 

Basle, stated that some of the journals of eastern Switzerland 
adopt sceptical principles. {News of the Churches, Oct. 1861.) 
He named the Zeit-stimmen aus der Reformirten Kirche der 
Schweiz, which is edited at "Wmterthur by Lang, a pupil of Baur. 
In German Switzerland, however, as well as French, there exists 
a biblical school of theology ; of which professor Riggenbach of 
Basle is an example. 

The Theology of Holland. — The sources were given above 
(p. 110.) for the study of Arminianism and Calvinism in the seven- 
teenth century. The subsequent history is soon told. We omit, 
of course, the history of the Romish church in Holland, and of the 
Jansenist secession from it, which took place in 1705. 

The - Protestant church continued to exist in" two branches; 
viz. the Calvinists, or established church, who professed the creed 
of the synod of Dort; and the Bemonstrants, who professed 
the moderate Arminianism of Episcopius; similar to that 
which was taught by our own Hales and Chillingworth. The 
studies in the established church were specially devoted to ex- 
egesis, in reference to which the name of Schultens of Leyden, in 
the last century, is well known ; manifesting a slight inclination 
to free inquiry in Van der Palm (1763-1838). 

About 1830, the condition of the church was a cold orthodoxy, 
much like that of the "moderate" party in the church of Scotland 
before the rupture of 1813. The stronghold of this party was the 
university of Utrecht. Living isolated, and resembling the Eng- 
lish in not easily admitting foreign influences, the Dutch read little 
of German literature. A periodical existed, the Theological Con- 
tributions, which used to bestow praises on the school of Bret- 
schneider. 

A little before 1830, a movement of evangelical piety had been 
kindled in the church, through the influence of the poet Bilderdyk 
(who died 1831), and of his two disciples, the Portuguese Jew of 
Amsterdam, Da Costa (who died in 1860), and Cappadose. Their 
position however was, a return to the rigid decrees of the synod 
of Dort and the theology of Calvin. They resembled very 
nearly the party in the church of Scotland which formed the free 
church. They acquainted themselves with German theology for 
the purpose of refuting it; and Da Costa wrote a work, The Four 
Witnesses, on the four Evangelists, in reply to Strauss ; w T hich has 
been translated. In 1834 they separated from the national church 
under two pastors, De Cock and Scholte, and endured much per- 
secution. The Voices of the Netherlands was the periodical which 
expressed their views. Van Oosterze, pastor at Rotterdam, be- 
longed to them. This party has been represented in the Dutch 
parliament by Groen van Printsterer. It has lost its political in- 
fluence in some degree in recent years, by opposing political re- 
forms. 

Almost simultaneously with this Calvinistic revival, a school 
arose in the university of Groningen, a " mediation" school, mod- 



^g NOTE 44. [Lect. VII. 

tiled, upon Schleiermacher, "under the influence of the Platonist 
Van Heusde (1778-1839), led by Hofstede de Groot, Pareau, and 
Muurling. Its organ was Truth in Charity. The views held 
were a spiritual Arianism. They may be seen in a novel pub- 
lished recently (1861) at Cape Town, for the Dutch colonists, en- 
titled, The Pastor of Yliethuizen, or Conversations about the Gro- 
ningen School, translated by Dr. Lorgian. 

These three parties were the chief in Holland, until about 1850. 
Since then a more decided movement of free thought has begun 
in the university of Leyden. Up to that time the venerable Van 
Hengel remained there, the example of the old philological ortho- 
doxy of Holland, Two professors have now created an indepen- 
dent movement, more nearly resembling that of the Tubingen 
school ; J. H. Scholten, in dogma ; and, with rather more advanc- 
ed views, the orientalist H. Kuenen in philology. (A list of some 
of Scholten's publications may be seen in the Westminster Review 
for July, 1862, page 43, note. HisHist. comparee de la Philos. et de 
la Relig. was translated by Reville, in the Nowcelle Rev. de la Theo- 
logie, April 1860.) Busker Huet has asserted still more advanced 
views than these, apparently simple naturalism. The Positivist 
philosophy has found an advocate in Opzoomer, one of the profes- 
sors at Utrecht. 

The sources of this account are chiefly found in Ullmann's paper 
in the Studien und Kritiken, 1840, part iii. translated by professor 
Edwards, with additions, in the American Ribliotheca Sacra for 
1845 ; and in an interesting article by A. Reville of Rotterdam, 
himself one of the liberal school of the French protestant church, 
in the Revue des Deux Mondes for June 15, 1860. Chautepie de la 
Saussure, pastor of the Walloon church at Leyden, formerly of the 
Groningen school, has also written in French, La Crise Religieuse 
en Hollande, 1859 ; but it is chiefly devoted to personal questions. 
A sketch of the Dutch universities and their intellectual character- 
istics was given by Esquiros in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1856, 
vol. iii. 

Note 44. p. 297. 

THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF FRANCE. 

The Ecectic School is sketched in Morell's History of Philoso- 
phy, vol. ii. c. viii; Damiron's Essai sur VHistoire de la Philoso- 
phic en France cue 19eme siecle, 1828, pp. 280-385 ; Nettement's 
Histoire de la Litt. Franc, sous la Restoration, 1853, vol. i. b. ii. p. 
127 seq. ; vol. ii. b. viii. p. 290 seq. ; and Hist, de la Litt. Frang. sous 
le Gouvernement de Juillet, vol. i. b. vi : also in Taine's Philosophic 
Frangaise du 19 hne siecle. The last writer is wholly unfavourable 
to the school, on the ground of the uselessness of metaphysical 
philosophy. 

The eclectic school was the means of uniting together the phi- 



Lect. VII] NOTE 45. 447 

losophy of Scotland and Germany, which had previously been run- 
ning in separate streams. The leading minds of the school have 
been four, — Eoyer Oollard, Maine de Biran, Cousin, and Jouifroy. 

The founder of it, R. Oollard (1763-1845), was a disciple of the 
Scotch' school, who about 1812 commenced an attack on the phi- 
losophy of Oondillac, very similar to that of Reid on Hume. He 
devoted himself to the analysis of the intellectual and moral parts 
of men, in order to assert the existence of a world within, inde- 
pendent of sensational impressions. The next writer, Maine de 
Biran (1766-1824), devoted himself especially to the examination 
of the will and the notion of cause, and reproduced the ideas of 
Leibnitz. The third, Cousin (born 1792), succeeded Collard in 
1815 as professor at Paris; and in his early lectures followed the 
Scotch school. When the conservative reaction occurred in 1822, 
consequent on the assassination of the duke de Berri, the consti- 
tutional party was thrown into disgrace ; and Cousin therefore 
retired into Germany, and there imbibed the spirit of the great 
schools of philosophy, especially of Schelling and Jacobi. He has 
given his own history in the preface to Fragments Philosophiques, 
vol. ii. Lastly came Jouffroy, the translator of Dngald Stewart, 
who improved upon the Scotch school. See Sainte-Beuve's crit- 
icism on JoUffroy. (Crit. Litt. vol. i.) 

Damiron was an admirable exponent of the eclectic school ; 
Benjamin Constant, Degerando, and Lerminier, partially belonged 
to the same school. Its effects are ably stated in Morell. The 
delicate hand of E. Renan also has sketched the influence of Cousin 
et Vecole Spiritualiste, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, April; 1858 ; 
reprinted in his Essais de Morale et de Critique. 



Note 45. p. 300. 

THE CATHOLIC REACTIONARY SCHOOL OF FRANCE. 

Concerning this school, see Morell's History of Philosophy, vol. 
ii. pp. 274-318 ; Damiron (as in the last note), pp. 105-197; Net- 
•tement (second work), vol. i. b. v. 

The members of this school all agree in reposing upon the 
principle of authority; but differ in the source in which they 
place it. Their philosophy accordingly does not aim at discover- 
ing truth, but only the authority on which we may rely as the 
oracle of truth. 

The. founder of the movement was De Maistre (1753-1821), 
the bitter opponent of the Baconian philosophy, whose doctrine, 
about the time of his death, was absolute submission to the catho- 
lic church. See concerning him C. Remusat in the Revue des Deux 
Mondes, May 1857; and E. Scherer's Melanges de la Critique Re- 
ligieuse. Lamennais belonged to the same movement. In his 
early manner, as expressed in his Essai sur V Indifference, 1821, he 



448 NOTE 46. LLect. VII. 

found the test of truth in primitive revelations transmitted by tes- 
timony ; in his later, he abandoned this school, and strove to work 
out philosophy, in part independently of authority. The next 
writer, De lionald, sought for truth in the same source, viz. frag- 
ments of divinely communicated knowledge, transmitted in the 
languages of mankind. On Bonald see 0. Remusat {Revue, as 
'quoted above). The Abbe Bautain improved upon this system by 
placing the ground of certitude in the authority of Revelation, and 
considered the office of philosophy to end when it has shown the 
necessity of a revelation. Next to him came D'Eckstein, who 
sought the test of truth in authority based on researches into 
the catholic beliefs of mankind. The two latter views, it will be 
perceived, are far nobler than the former. Maret, whose writings 
have been before cited, also belongs to this reactionary school. 

Note 46. p. 304. 

THE MODERN SCIIOOL OF FEEE TnOUGnT IN THE PE0TESTANT 
CnUECH OF FEANCE. 

The object of this note is to enumerate some of the chief of 
those theologians to whom allusion is made in the text, and to ex- 
hibit their relations to each other. 

One of the best known is Colani, a pastor at Strasburg, the 
able editor of the Nouvclla Revue de la Theologie, and author of 
several volumes of sermons: also A. Eeville, pastor of the Wal- 
loon church at Rotterdam, a frequent writer in the same Review, 
and in the Revue des Deux Mondes ; Reuss, a professor at Stras- 
burg, author of a history of the early church, in French, and 
Beitrclge zu den TJieologischenWissenschaften, in German ; Scherer, 
the friend of Vinet, once professor at Geneva, author of Melanges 
de Critique Religieuse, reprinted mostly from Colani's Review, of 
which the first four papers give his theological views on Inspira- 
tion, the Bible, and Sin. 18 

The able critic, Michel Nicholas, professor at Montauban, au- 
thor of Etudes Critiques sur la Bible, and Des Doctrines Religieuscs 
des Juifs pendant les deux siecles anterieurs a Vere Chretienne, 
probably maybe classed with the same; but he has not written 
on doctrine. A. Gocquerel jtts, pastor at Paris, also is connected 
with Colani's Review, and is considered to possess the same sym- 
pathies. 

The difference of the point of view of these writers from that 
of the Eclectic school would be, that while the latter would regard 
the human race as able to pass beyond Christianity, the former 
would only wish to get rid of the dogmas which they think have 
been superadded in the course of ages, and to return to the simple 
teaching of the sermon on the mount. 

One writer more has been reckoned with the same party by 

18 His work on Dogmatique is in Lis earlier manner. 



Lect. VII.] NOTE. 46. 449 

the English public, E. De Pressense, a pastor in the free Protes- 
tant church at Paris, author of the Church History so often refer- 
red to in this volume, and of sermons on the Sauveur, and editor 
of the Revue Chretienne ; but he appears to possess an evangelical 
and more orthodox tone than some of the above. 

Jn truth there are two distinct parties in the movement which 
we are describing, each of which stands in a different relation to 
the older parties of the protestant church. At the beginning of 
the century the French protestant church held an unpietistic kind 
of supernaturalism, not very unlike that of Reinhard in Germany, 
of which the best living type is the eloquent and learned A. Coc- 
querel^ere. About 1820 an awakening of the spiritual life of the 
church took place, under the action of the Spirit of God primarily, 
and through the agency of such ministrations as those of Adolphe 
Monod instrumentally. From the former school has arisen the 
movement seen in Colani and Reville ; from the latter, that seen 
in Vinet and Pressense. The former is a change which has passed 
over the old Latitudinarian school, much like those which in Ger- 
many have taken the place of the teaching of such men as Rein- 
hard and Bretschneider. Of the pastors named above, who be- 
long to this class, A. Cocquerel^/s is the least removed from the 
ordinary creed. His stand-point may be compared to that of 
Schleiermacher, or of the school of Groningen. (See Note 41.) 
Reville and Colani advance very much farther. The other move- 
ment, of which Vinet of Lausanne was the cause, has sprung from 
the application of science to the newly-spreading views of evan- 
gelical religion. Vinet tried to harmonize religion and knowledge, 
by presenting Christianity on the ground of its internal rather 
than its external evidence, and proclaimed it as ethics built on 
doctrine ; which doctrine he held to be built on historic fact. His 
position may be best compared with Neander's in Germany, or 
perhaps in some respects with that of Tholuck. Nearly the same 
position is assumed by Pressense at Paris, and Astie at Lausanne. 
Pressense rests upon the Bible as the "formal principle " of 
theology, and the work of Christ as the " material." 

The writer feels much hesitation in venturing to classify these 
authors, which nevertheless seemed desirable on account of the 
spread of their writings in England. The above description, 
founded on personal study of their works, is confirmed by two 
criticisms on them ; one by C. Remusat, in the Revue des Deux 
Mondes, Jan. 1862 ; the other in the British Quarterly Review, 
Oct. 1862. But care ought to be used in describing the actors in 
a movement which is not complete ; and in making the attempt, to 
distinguish especially those who are conceived to deviate from vital 
truth in doctrine, from those who may differ in questions of litera- 
ture or criticism. It is due to these writers to express admiration 
for their genuine love of intellectual and political liberty, much as 
we may be compelled to differ from their theological opinions. 



LECTURE VIE. 

Note 47. p. 320. . 

MODERN OPINIONS WITH EESPECT TO MYTHOLOGY. . 

In the last century the opinions on the nature of mythology 
were two. That which taught that myths are distortions of 
traditions derived from the early Hebrew literature, was put for- 
ward in the seventeenth century, as early as philosophy was ap- 
plied to the subject, by Huet and Bossuet, and retained its hold 
throughout the last century, and is advocated in the present by 
Mr. Gladstone (Work on Homer, vol. ii. ch. ii). The opposite 
theory interpreted myths by an Euhemeristic process, or allegorized 
them by regarding them as originally descriptions of the physi- 
cal processes of nature. In the present century Oreuzer (Symbolifr, 
1810) applied the method of comparison, and, studying Greek 
mythology in correlation with that of other countries, taught in a 
Neo-Platonic sense that myths are a second language, the echo of 
nature in the consciousness. Creuzer 1 s system was opposed by 
Lobeck about 1824, Voss, and G. Hermann, who objected to the 
excess of symbolism and the sacerdotal ideas implied in it ; and by 
Ottfried Muller, and Welcker, on the narrower ground of asserting 
the independence of Greek mythology from foreign influence. 
More. recently the careful study of the Sanskrit language and early 
literature by Max Muller, Kuhn, &c. has thrown new light upon 
the subject ; and the solution of the problem is now approached 
from the side of language, and not merely from that of tradition 
or monuments. The distinction of myth and legend is now clear; 
the family relationship between the myths of different nations is 
made apparent; the date in human history of their creation; and 
the cause of them is sought in the attempt to express abstract 
ideas by means of the extension of concrete terms. See the Essay 
on Comparative Mythology by Max Muller, in the Oxford Essays 
for 1856. See also the Journal for Comp. Phil, of Kuhn and Au- 
frecht. And for a criticism on Oreuzer, see E. Kenan's Etudes 
(PHistoire Religieuse (Ess. i). 



Lbct VIIL] NOTES 48, 49. 451 

Note 48. p. 363. 

THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL BRANCHES OF EVIDENCE. 

It may be almost superfluous to name that the evidences are 
usually divided into 1. external, and 2. internal. Each of these 
requires a subdivision into (a) the divine, and (/3) the human. 

The external divine are miracles and prophecy; the external 
human are the historical proof as to the authenticity and genuine- 
ness of the literature which contains the narrative of the miracles 
and the prophecy. The internal divine are sought in the accord- 
ance of the materials of the Eevelation, the character of Christ, 
the scheme of Kedemption, &c. with the moral sense of man, and 
with the expectations which we should form antecedently of the 
contents of a revelation ; the internal human, in the critical evi- 
dence of undesigned coincidence. Looked at logically, the second 
is like the corroboration of the testimony of a witness ; the fourth, 
like cross-examining him. The first two may amount almost to 
demonstration, being what Aristotle (Rhet. i. 2.) would call reK/x^pia : 
the two latter have only the force of probability ; the third being 
antecedent probability, eltcos ; the fourth, the dvcouvpou cr^^eioi/, or 
circumstantial evidence. The argument of analogy used by 
Butler, which may be regarded as almost 19 one form of Aristotle's 
napddtiyfxa (Rhet. ii. 20), (if looked at on its positive side, and not 
merely its negative, as disproof of objections,) comes under the 
third, inasmuch as it offers a series of principles obtained by 
generalization from the natural and moral world, which furnish 
an antecedent presumption of the character of any revealed 
scheme. The remarks in the text relate to the comparative 
weight to be given to the first and third of the four classes named 
above. The advantage of Butler's argument over the other cases 
of internal & priori evidence is, that it is founded on previous care- 
ful induction ; the other kinds of anticipations are founded only on 
hasty empirical generalizations. For this view of the evidences, 
see Hampden's Introduction to the Philosophical Evidences of 
Christianity ; Davidson's Lectures on Prophecy (Introductory 
Lecture) ; and W. D. Conybeare's Lectures on Theology, ch. i. 



Note 49. p. 3G6. 

THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. 

As frequent references have been made to the subject of apo- 
logetic in connexion with the history of free thought, it seems 

19 The strict difference would be. that analogy is the resemblance of ratios, where 
the objects, in which the ratios are perceived, are not known to be referable to the 
6ame general class; napddciyfia on the contrary where they arc so. 



452 NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII. 

desirable to give a brief literary history of the Evidences, and to 
indicate the works where further information may be obtained 
with regard to them. 

There are two methods of studying the subject; either to 
classify the Evidences in the manner of the last Note, 20 and pro- 
ceed to notice the ages in which, and the authors by whom, each 
portion of them has been developed, together with the causes 
which have called them forth ; or else, to adopt the historic plan, 
and trace their gradual growth through the course of ages. By 
the latter method (if we exclude all that strictly belongs to the 
province of polemic as distinct from apologetic), we find the fol- 
lowing controversies: — in the early centuries, the double contest 
against the Jews and against the Pagans ; in the early middle 
ages, against the Mahometans without, and Freethinkers within, 
the limits of Christendom ; at the Kenaissance, against unbelief 
within the church : in more modern times, whilst the argument 
against the Jew has been called forth by contact with the Jewish 
denizens scattered through Europe, and the Mahometan has been 
occasionally excited by missionary labours ; there has been the 
contemporaneous struggle within the church, against deism, athe- 
ism, and rationalism. 

This history, it will be observed, is so complex, that it would 
be necessary to study each branch of the contest separately. Ac- 
cordingly, we have treated in distinct notes the contests with the 
Jew (Note 4), and the Mahometan (Note 5) ; and there remain for 
study those which existed with the Pagan in the early ages, and 
with the various forms of scepticism in the later. 

It will be convenient to classify the inquiry, under the four 
epochs according to which we have studied the history of unbelief 
in the preceding lectures; viz. (1) the contest of Christianity with 
Paganism ; (2) with the incipient free thought of the middle ages; 
(3) with the unbelief of the Renaissance; and (4) w T ith the subse- 
quent forms of unbelief, which it may be useful to classify accord- 
ing to the countries where they have respectively appeared, — Eng- 
land, France, and Germany. 

I. The apology or defence of Christianity against Pagans com- 
mences with the apostolic age. 21 Its first form is seen in the mis- 
sionary speech of St. Paul at Athens. The first chapter of his 
Epistle to the Romans also may be regarded as expressing the 
same ideas. The defence consisted in an appeal to the heart as 
well as to fact; to show the heathen the need of Christianity be- 
fore presenting the statement of its nature, and the evidence of its 
divine character. In the second century, when it became gradual- 
ly understood that Christianity was not a mere Jewish sect ; and 
when the attack consisted in calumnies and persecutions, as 
stated in Lect. II. pp. 48, 54, the apologies especially were direct- 

20 A plan of arrangement of this kind is used by Mr. Bolton in the TInlsean Prize 
Essay for 1852, The Evidences of Christianity, as exhibited in the writings of lite 
Apologists down to Augustine. 

81 Cfr. Gerard, Compendium of Evidences, 1S2S, part ii. cb. i. 



llct. viil] note 49. 453 

ed to repel the charges, or to demand' toleration: (see Note 15.) 
In the third and fourth centuries the attack was more intelligent, 
and the statement of objections more definite; and the character 
of the apologies altered correspondingly. 

There is some difficulty in arranging the early Apologies. A 
recent writer, Pressense, who has made a special study of them, 
has used, as his fundamental principle of classification, the view 
which the authors took of the relation of the soul of man to 
Christianity ; according to which he makes three classes; the first, 
comprising those who thought that the soul of man was fitted for 
truth, and acknowledged the heathen religions as a preparation for 
Christianity; the second, those who, taking the same view of 
human nature, regarded the heathen religions as corruptions, and 
wholly injurious; and the third, those who took such a despond- 
ing view of human nature as to regard it as possessing no truth 
without revelation {Hist. vol. ii. ser. ii.p. 164-5.) As examples 
of the first class, he cites Origen and most of the earlier fathers ; 
of the second, Tertullian ; of the third, Arnobius. He thinks, but 
perhaps hardly rightly, that the chronological order, in which the 
three views occurred, coincides also with this mode of arrange- 
ment. It will be evident that the first two classes show an at- 
tempt to approach Christianity d priori, by arousing the sense of 
want; the last by " crushing the human soul" by authority: the 
first of the three trying to open the way for the reception of 
Christianity, by describing it as the highest philosophy and reli- 
gion ; the second as the substitute for both ; but both schools 
agreeing in describing it. as the satisfaction of the world's yearn- 
ings. It will be also apparent why the presentation of the d priori 
internal Evidences should precede the external. When the world 
had been impressed with the necessity of a new religion, then the 
opportunity came for employing the cogent power of the external 
and historic evidence which authenticates Christianity. 

A less artificial manner however of studying the Apologies 
would be to view them in time, and in space ; i. e. according to 
their date, and the churches from which they emanate, whether 
Syrian, Alexandrian, Eoman, or African ; with the view of wit- 
nessing at once the alteration in the attack and the character of the 
apology which existed in different countries at one and the same 
time. 

It appears worthy of notice however, that the attempt to find 
difference of treatment according to difference of country almost 
entirely fails. If applied as a principle of classifying manuscripts, 
or modes of exegesis, or liturgical uses, sufficient variety is exhibit- 
ed to prove that the Christian church was a collection of provin- 
cial churches, each possessing its national peculiarity, each contri- 
buting to swell the general harmony by uttering its own appro- 
priate note ; but, when applied to the subject of apologetic, the 
method fails to show a difference in the method of defence which 
was simultaneously used in the great Christian army; which 



45^ NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII. 

forms a proof of the facility of intercourse between different 
churches, and of the uniformity in the character of the attack 
directed simultaneously on the church in different lands. The 
change in the character of the Evidences with the growth of time, 
according to the alteration of attack described above, is apparent, 
but not the variation at the same date in different parts of the 
world. We shall therefore merely present a list, in which the 
apologists are arranged according to place and date, without at- 
tempting to draw inferences which cannot be supported. 

The recent publication of Pressense's work, where the spirit 
of the apologies is given, together with an analysis of their con- 
tents, renders it unnecessary to offer here a full analysis of them, 
as had been intended. Other works indeed partially supplied the 
need previous to his. Such, for example, were Houtteville's 
Introduction to La Religion Chretienne prouvee par des Faits, con- 
taining an account of the authors for and against Christianity 
(translated 1739); Schramm's Analysis Patrum, 1780 ; Scultetus's 
Medullar. Pair. Syntagma, 1631 ; and for the Apostolic Fathers, 
the Introduction to Mr. Woodham's edition of Tertullian's Apology. 

It will be sufficient accordingly to give a list of the writers, 
with a very brief mention of the object of their treatises, 22 and to 
enumerate the literary sources from which further information 
may be obtained in respect to them. 

22 Notes 14, 15, 17, 19, afford illui-trations bearing upon the same subject. 



Lect. YIII.] 



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456 NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII. 

N. B. The names in brackets are of authors whose apologies 
are almost wholly lost ; those in italics are the ones which alone 
are usually mentioned in a list of apologists. To the above ought 
perhaps to have been added for completeness, Maternus, a. d. 350 ; 
Ephraim the Syrian ; and Apollinaris of Asia Minor, who replied 
to Julian. The names marked with a note of interrogation de- 
note those in reference to which the reader may demur to the 
classification. Justiu Martyr wrote at Rome; but he wrote in 
Greek, and was a Greek philosopher in spirit. Of Hermias little 
is known. Jerome lived much in Syria, and leaned to .the Syrian 
school of exegesis, so that he has been classed with the Syrian 
church, though his intimacy with Augustin and his writing in 
Latin might rather have caused him to be classed with the west- 
ern. Also Minucius Felix ought perhaps rather to be classed with 
the Roman than the African church. 

"We shall next state the purpose of the treatises of those Apol- 
ogists, whose names are printed in italics in the table. 

The first group consists of Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras. Her- 
mias, and Theophilus ; the first three of whom may be considered 
to express the defence of Christian philosophers, who were striv- 
ing- to explain the nature of Christianity, partly with a view to 
plead for toleration, partly to make converts. 

Justin has left two apologies ; one against the Jews, the other 
against the heathens ; (a second against the heathens is a frag- 
ment.) In both he adopted the same plan, of first repelling pre- 
judices, and then assaulting his opponent. That which is directed 
against the Jews is analysed in Kaye's Justin, c. xi. In that which 
was directed against the heathens, he first repelled the charges 
made against Christians, such as atheism, Thyestean banquets, and 
treason against the state ;• and next, those made against Christian- 
ity, especially those which related to its late introduction, the 
person of Christ, and the doctrine of the resurrection. In pro- 
ceeding to assault heathenism, he endeavoured to show that it did 
not possess religious truth, and claimed that the points of agree- 
ment with Christian truth were borrowed; and after having thus 
shown the superiority of Christianity to heathenism, he endeavour- 
ed to show its divinity, by the internal evidence of its doctrines 
and effects, and by the external evidence of miracles and proph- 
ecies. 

Tatian's treatise in substance was an. invective against the pa- 
gans, on the absurdity and iniquity of the pagan theology and its 
recent origin, with a running comparison between it and Chris- 
tianity. 

The object of Athenagoras was to plead for toleration; and 
consequently he employed himself in vindicating the Christiana 
from various charges, such as incest, Thyestean banquets ; and 
retaliated the charges on the heathen. 

The little work of Hermias, the date of which is uncertain, 



L 



Lect. VIII.] NOTE 49. 45^ 

(see Lardner, Cred. ch. xxv. and Cave, Hist. Lit, lxxxi. is a kind 
of sermon on St. Paul's words, " The wisdom of this world is fool- 
ishness with God." In an amusing manner, not unlike Lucian, he 
criticised the heathen philosophy, arguing its falsehood from the 
contradictory opinions held in it. 

The form of Theophilus's work AdAutolycu wis not unlike some 
of those which have preceded. Indeed the form was suggested 
by circumstances ; being a defence of Christianity against particu- 
lar charges, and the retaliation of similar ones on the heathens. 
He drew out the attributes of the true God, b. i ; and afterwards 
exhibited the falsehood of the heathen religion and history, b. ii ; 
defending Christians from the absurd charges made against them ; 
and attempting to show the originality and antiquity of the He- 
brew history aud chronology, b. iii. 

The next group of Apologists, which -comprises the writers of 
the African church, Tertullian and Minucius Felix, differs from 
the last in spirit, though resembling them in purpose. It is the 
defence made by rhetoricians instead of philosophers. The pur- 
pose too, like that of the preceding Apologists, is partly to effect 
conviction, partly to obtain toleration ; but there is a conscious- 
ness of the presence of danger, hardly perceivable in the former 
writers'. "We feel, as we read these early African writers, that 
they write like men who felt themselves in the presence of perse- 
cution, and who were brought more nearly than the former 
writers into the face of their foe. 

Tertullian's Tract, which is analysed both by Mr. TToodham in 
his edition of it, and by Mr. T. Chevallier in his translation of it, 
is chiefly defensive. He claims toleration, ch. i-vii ; refutes the 
miscellaneous charges against Christianity, ch. x-xxvii ; and the 
charge of treason (xxviii-xxxvii) ; explains the nature of Christian- 
ity (xvii-xxiii) ; and compares it with philosophy, ch. xlv-xlvii. 

The work of Minucius Felix is a dialogue between a heathen, 
Caacilius, and a Christian, Octavius. The heathen opens by deny- 
ing a Providence; next inveighs against the Christians, by a series 
of charges such as were named in Note 15 ; and then attacks the 
Christian doctrines and condition. The Christian Octavius is made 
to answer each point successively. 

In passing now from the African school of Apologists to the 
Alexandrian, we leave the rhetoricians, and meet with the philos- 
ophers, Clement and Origen. Clement precedes Tertullian by a 
few years ; Origen succeeds Minucius Felix. 

Clement, in part of his Stromata, and in his Cohortatio, has ex- 
pressed the spirit of his apologetic; which resembles those of the 
first group, in admitting the value of heathen philosophy as a pre- 
paration for Christianity, and claims that the Hebrews are the 
source of philosophy, and that Christianity is the full satisfaction 
for those who sought knowledge. 

20 






45§ NOTE 49. [Le'ct. VIII. 

The spirit and details of Origen's defence have been so fully 
given in Lecture II. and Note 14, that it is unnecessary to enlarge 
upon the subject. His apology marks a further step. Tertullian 
replied to the prejudices'of the vulgar, and M. Felix to the scepti- 
cism of the educated, which formed two elements in the heathen 
reaction of the second century. Origen furnished the reply to the 
attack made by the heathen philosophy. It is in reply to Celsus, 
who possessed a competent knowledge of Christianity ; and who, 
though writing earlier than the time when the charges which 
Tertullian afterwards refuted were common, was too well informed 
to have believed them, and opposed Christianity on deeper grounds. 
Celsus stands later logically, though not chronologically, than the 
authors of those frivolous charges, and midway between them aud 
the educated assailants of Christianity of the third century, such 
as Porphyry. Origen's defence too marks a similar advance, and, 
by exhibiting sympathy with the very philosophy which Porphyry 
and others adopted, shows the kind of defence which was thougm, 
likely to attract philosophic minds. 

The chronology compels us to return to the African church, 
and introduces us to two Apologists ; — Arnobius and Lactantius ; 
one of whom seems to have written a little before Christianity 
had become a tolerated religion ; the latter a little afterwards. 

The work of Arnobius is taken up, partly in repelling charges 
made against the Christians, such as that the Christians do not 
worship, which are no longer charges of the absurd kind made a 
century before ; partly in comparing Christianity and heathenism ; 
and partly in offering the evidence for Christianity. It is in this 
point that we find the peculiarity which belongs to Arnobius. He 
is the first writer who lays firm stress on the demonstrative char- 
acter of the evidence of fact. In previous writers Christianity had 
been proved by probability : he makes it to rest on the evidence 
of certainty ; and considers the fact of the revelation to guarantee 
the contents of it. 

The large work of Lactantius, the Institutiones Dkinm, is a 
work of ethics as well as of defence. Christians have obtained 
protection, and defence is becoming didactic : apology is expiring 
in instruction : all that is now needed for the spread of Christian- 
ity is, that its nature should be understood. The work is partly a 
work of religion, partly of philosophy, partly of ethics; the object 
in each case being to show that Christianity supplies the only true 
form in each department of thought. 

The remaining Apologists may be grouped together, though 
they have no point of union, except that their arguments are di- 
rected to the special condition of heathenism; when, being no 
longer triumphant, it was standing on the defensive, and, at the 
time of the two latter of the group, was fast declining. They are, 
JCusebius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Augustin. 



Lect. VIII. ] NOTE 49. . 459 

If Origen is the metaphysical philosopher of the early Apolo- 
gists; if Augustin is the political; Eusebius is the man of eru- 
dition. He has left, besides the small work against Hierocles (see 
Note 17), two works of defence ; the first the Evangelica Prcepara- 
tio, against the Gentiles ; the second the Evangelica Demonstration 
more suited for the Jews. The former work is to show that Christi- 
anity has not been accepted without just cause; which he attempts 
to prove by a very elaborate discussion (valuable to us in a literary 
point of view, on account of the quotations which he has preserved) 
of the various religions, Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, and of the 
various types of Greek thought and belief; and, by a comparison 
of them with the Hebrew, he shows the superiority of the last. 
The other work, the Evangelica Demonstration is designed to prove 
that Christ and Christianity fulfil the ancient prophecies. His 
apology marks the transitionary time when Christianity was be- 
coming the religion of the Eoman world, and men hesitated as to 
its truth, looking back with regret to the past, with uneasiness to 
the future. 

The other two Apologists - are nearly a century later ;■ when 
Christianity had been long established. 

Cyril has already come before us as the respondent to Julian. 
It is enough to refer to Lecture II. and Note 19, in relation to 
him. It is worthy of observation, that the circumstance that he 
should consider it necessary to reply to Julian's work, at so long 
a period after the death of the author, and the frustration of his 
schemes, seems to show the continued existence of a wavering in 
the faith of Christians, of which we seldom have the opportunity 
of finding the traces at so late a period. 

If Cyril marks the apology of the Alexandrian church at the 
commencement of the fifth century, Augustin similarly exhibits 
that of the African in presence of the new woes which were 
bursting upon the world. Christianity had long lived down the 
charges made against it by prejudice, and shown itself to be the 
philosophy which the educated craved. The charges Of treason 
too had ceased, for it had become the established religion ; -but 
one prejudice still remained. Victorious with man ; triumphant 
over the prejudices of the vulgar, the opinions of the philosophers, 
and the power of the 'state ; it still was not, it seemed, victorious 
in heaven ; and at last the heathen gods were arousing themselves 
to take vengeance on the earth for the overthrow of their wor- 
ship, by a series of terrible calamities. Apprehensions like these 
haunted the imagination; and it was the object of Augustin, in his 
work, De Givitate Dei, to remove them. That work was a philos- 
ophy of society ; it was the history of the church and of the 
world, viewed in presence of the dissolution, social and political, 
which seemed impending. 

These brief remarks will suffice to give a faint idea of the line 
of argument adopted by the early Apologists. Further informa- 
tion in regard to them may be found in the following sources : — 



4(50 NOTE 48. [Lkct. VIII. 

In a history of this period written by Tzchirner, Geschichte der 
ApologetiJc, 18.05 ; also another by Van Senden, 1831, translated 
into German from the Dutch, 1841 ; Clausen, ApologetazEcc. Chr. 
ante-Theodosiani, 181V; and a brief account in Stein, Die Apolo- 
getik des Christenthum, § 6. p. 13. Other references may be found 
in Hase's Church History, E. T. § 52 ;. Hagenbach's Dogmenge- 
schichte, § 29, 11V ; and in J. A. Fabricius, Delectus Argument, ch. i. 
In the same work (ch. ii-v.) is an account of the chief Apologists, 
and of the fragments of their lost writings. In reference to the 
■ character of the apologetic works of the early fathers, informa- 
tion may also be obtained in Walch's Biblioth. Patristic, (ed. Danz. 
1834.) § 9V-100. ch. x; and concerning some of them in P. G. 
Lumper's Hist. Theol.-Crit. de Sanct. Patr. 1V85 ; Moehler's Pa- 
trologie, 1840; Bitter's Chr. Phil, i and ii; JSTeander's Kirchen- 
geschichte, i. 242 seq. ; ii. 411 seq. ; Kaye's works on Justin, Cle- 
ment, and Tertullian ; and Dr. A. Clarke's /Succession of Ecclesias- 
tical Literature, 1832. 

On a review of these early apologies, some peculiarities are 
observable. 

First, with the exception of Origen's treatise, and some parts 
of Eusebius, they are inferior as works of mind to many of modern 
times. 23 This was to be expected from the character of the age ; 
the literature of that period being poor in tone, compared with 
the earlier and with the modern. In works of encyclopaedic history 
and geography, and in a reconsideration of philosophy by the light 
of the past, it had indeed some excellences ; but the literature as a 
whole, not only the Latin, but even the Greek, was debased by 
the substitution of rhetoric for the healthy freshness of thought 
and poetry of older times : and the apologetic literature partakes 
of the tone of its age. The Christian writers, when looked at in 
a literary point of view, must be compared with authors of their 
own times. The Alexandrian apologies rise sometimes to philos- 
ophy ; but those of the Greek nation sink to rhetoric. In later 
times, men who were giants in mind and learning have written on 
behalf of Christianity ; and it would be unfair to the apologetic 
fathers to compare them with these. 

Secondly, we cannot fail to remark the abundant use of what 
is now called the philosophical argument for Christianity, the con- 
viction that prejudice must be removed, and antecedent probabil- 

23 This remark is only intended to apply to the apologetic writings, -which are 
not the best works, of the fathers. In the fourth eei.tury we meet with a group of 
fathers of a higher type of mind than those of the first three; e.g. Eusebius 
Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Ambrose, and Jerome. Speaking generally, 
however, the three writers, Origen, Chrysostom, and Augustin, are probably tile 
only ones who had minds of the highest class, and who thoroughly exceed the con- 
temporary heathen writers of their day in mental penetration, freshness, and com- 
pass, respectively. If we have compared Origen in mind with Hugo St. Victor, 
and Schleiermacher, as a Christian philosopher (Lect. VI.), we might also venture 
to compare Augustin with Aquinas or Calvin, in power to grasp systematic truth ; 
and Chrysostom with Bernard, and in some respects with Bossuet, in eloquence, 
learning, and vigour. Eusebius perhaps almost demands a place with these three ; 
but he was a man of knowledge rather than originality. 



Lbct. VIIL] NOTE 49. 4_g j_ 

ities be suggested, before the hearer could be expected to submit 
to Christianity. The just inference from this is not that which 
some would draw, the depreciation of the argument from external 
evidence, but rather a corroboration of the importance of the 
emotional element, as an ingredient in the judgment formed on 
religion. The only practical inference that can be drawn in refer- 
ence to ourselves is, that if it be true that our age resembles 
theirs, as has been suggested by Pressense (see Lecture VIII. p. 
856), we must adopt the same plan ; not because we admit that 
the external evidence is uncertain or unreal, but because the 
other kind of evidence is best adapted, from philosophical reasons, 
to such a state of society as ours. 

Several centuries pass before we again meet with works of 
evidence. In the dark ages, the public mind and thought were 
nominally Christian ; and at least were not sufficiently educated 
to admit of the generation of doubts which might create a demand 
for apologetic works. Accordingly we pass over this interval, and 
proceed at once to the middle ages. 

II. The scepticism of the second period of free thought possess- 
ed so largely the character of a tendency rather than an attitude 
of fixed antagonism, that it gave no opportunity for direct works 
of refutation. But the spirit of apologetic is seen in two respects; 
in the special refutation of particular points of teaching, as in 
Bernard's controversy with Abelard, and more especially in the 
works of the scholastic theology. 

This theology, especially as seen in the works of the great real- 
ist Aquinas, and of others who took their method from him, was 
essentially, as has been before said (pp. 11 and 92), a work of 
defence. In the two centuries before his time we already find the 
spirit of reverent inquiry working. Anselm's two celebrated 
works, the Monologium and Proslogium, a kind of soliloquy on 
the Trinity, and the Cur Bens Homo, or theory of the Atone- 
ment, are the work of a mind that was reconsidering its own be- 
liefs, and restating the grounds of the immemorial doctrines of the 
church. (See J. A. Hasse, Anselm, 1843, 52.) In the following 
century (viz. the twelfth), the work of Peter Lombard, called the 
SententicB, marks an age when inquiry was active ; and the mate- 
rial was supplied for its satisfaction by means of searching amid the 
opinions of the past for the witness of authority. But in the 
thirteenth century, the grand advance made by Aquinas in his 
Summa, is no less than the result of the conviction that religion 
admitted of a philosophy ; that theological truth was a science ; 
and so, commencing with the plan of first discussing God ; then 
man; then redemption ; then ethics; he created a method, which 
had been indeed suggested by his predecessors, but was more fully 
displayed by him, for arranging the truths of theology in a sys- 
tematic form, in which their reasonableness might appear, and 



402 NOTE 49. [Lect. yill. 

through which they might commend themselves to the judgment 
of a philosophical age." 

The most Successful mode of .replying to objections is not to 
refute the error contained in them, but to grasp the truth and 
build it into a system, where the doubter finds his mind and heart 
satisfied with the possession of that for which he was craving. If 
the twelfth century had not had its Abelards, its spirit of inquiry, 
of analysis, and of doubt; the church would never have had its 
champion philosopher Aquinas : but if it had not had its Aquinas, 
the succeeding ages would probably have produced many more 
Abelards. The scholastic theology accordingly must be regarded 
as the true rationalism, the true use of reason in defence. Like 
as the mind goes through the process of perceiving facts, then of 
classifying and generalizing, next of defining and tracing principles 
to practical results ; so the church, in forming its theology, re- 
ceives its facts as they were once for all apprehended by inspired 
men of old, and are corroborated by the experience of the- Chris- 
tian consciousness 'from age to age: but, after so receiving them, 
it exercises its office in creating a theology, by classifying and 
arranging them, and generalizing from them ; and when new 
doubts or objections arise, it recompares its teaching with the 
faith once delivered to the saints ; defines and prescribes the 
limits of truth and error ; and thus absorbs into its own system 
whatever is true in the newly-presented doubts or objections. 
This is really the action of the church in moments of peril ; and is 
that which was effected by the scholastic theologians, — Anselm, 
the two Victors, Aquinas, Bonaventura, and others. It is suffi- 
cient to refer to Ritter's Christliche Philosophic, iii. 502 seq. ; iv. 
257 seq. ; Neander's Kirchengeschichte, vol. viii ; Stein's Die Apolo- 
getic, § 7 arid 8 ; Hagenbach's Dogmcngesch. § 150 ; and Hase's 
Church History, § 218, 277, 278 ; for information concerning these 
writers and their position. 

TIL At the time of the Renaissance, in- the fifteenth century, 
which was the third' period at which the Christian faith was in 
peril from doubt, we begin to meet with works of evidence of a 
more directly controversial kind. Defence is no longer a spirit, 
but a fact. Apologetic theology is severed from Dogmatic. 

One work remains, written in the fourteenth century by 
Petrarch (Opp. de Otio Religiosor), which defends the truth of 
Christianity against Philosophers, Mahometans, and Jews; partly 
on the evidence of miracles, but mainly on the internal evidence 
of the purity and godliness of Christianity. In the early part of 
the fifteenth century, Raimond de Sebondc, professor of medicine 
at Barcelona, wrote his Theologia Naturalis, which was after- 
wards translated into French by Montaigne. It was charged with 
deism, but really was in spirit, as previously observed (p. 104), 
only like Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. See Hallam's 
History of Literature, i. 138; Ritter's Christliche Philosophic, iv. 



Lect. VIII] NOTE 49. 4.Q3 

658 seq. Another exists by iEneas Sylvius ; another by Ficinus, 
1450, De Relig. Christiana, in which the evidence of prophecy 
and miracles is adduced ; the arguments from the moral character 
of the apostles and martyrs, the wonderful spread of Christianity, 
and the wisdom of the Bible, are used ; and a comparison is drawn 
between Christianity and other creeds. 

In the close of the same century, as soon as printing became 
common, several similar treatises occur. One exists by Alphonso 
de Spina, Fortalitium Fidei contra Judozos, &c. 1487 ; also by Savo- 
narola, Triumplius Cruris, she de Vera Fide, 1497 ; also by Pico 
di Mirandola ; and by Ludovicus Vives, De Veritate Christiana, 
1551. A carefully written account of all these is given by Staiid- 
lin, in Eichhorn's Geschichte der Literatur, vol. vi. p. 24 seq. See 
also Fabricius, Delect. Argument, ch. xxx. 

The preceding works were mostly directed against the first of 
the two species of unbelief which belonged to this period, viz. the 
literary tendency (see Lecture III. p. 93, 94). A few however 
exist which were directed against the second species, which was 
connected with the philosophy of Padua. They are not so much 
general treatises, as works written against particular opinions, of 
Pomponatius, Bruno, or Vanini. An account of them may be 
found in the memoirs respectively published concerning these 
writers ; the references to which are given in the notes to Lecture 
III. (See pp. 101-103.) The work of Mornaaus, De Veritate 
Relig ionis Christiana! adv. Atheistas, Epicureos, dec. 1580, was 
probably suggested by this species of philosophy. 

IV. The fourth great period, marked by the. unbelief connect- 
ed with the activity of modern speculation and the influence of 
modern discovery, commenced in the sixteenth century. The 
works of defence are so numerous that we can only give a brief 
notice of the principal writers and writings. A list may be col- 
lected, down to the respective dates of their publication, from J. 
A. Fabricius's De Veritate Rel. Christ, c. 30 ; PfafTs Hist. Litt. 
Theol. ii. § 2 ; Buddens's Isagoge, pp. 856-1237; Walch's Biblioth. 
Theol. Select, vol. i. ch. v. § 5-7 : and the principal arguments are 
summed up in S'tapfer's Instit. Theol. Polem. 1744, vol. i. ch. iii. 
and vol. ii. Tholuck also has written a history of modern apolo- 
getic, Ueber Apologetih und Hire Litteratur (Vermischte Schriften, 
i. pp. 150-376), and the Abbe Migne has published a most import- 
ant collection of the principal treatises on apologetic in all ages, 
arranged in chronological order. It is contained in twenty vols. 
4to. 1843. The title of the work is given below. 24 

44 Demonstrations Evany cliques : (tomel.) de Tertullien, Origins, Eusebe (Przep. 
Kv.) ; (2.) Eusebe (Dem. E?.), S. Augustin, Montaigne, Bacon, Grotius, Descartes; 
(3.) Richelieu, Arnauld, De Ghoiseul du Plessis-Praslm, Pascal, Pelisson, Nicole ; 
(4.) Boyle, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Locke, Lami, Burnet, Malebranche, Lesley, Leib- 
nitz, La Bruyere, Fenelon; (5.) Huet, Clarke; (6.) Duguet, Stanhope, Bayle, Z,e- 
clerc, Du Pin;. (7) Jacquelot, Tillotson, De dialler, Sherlock, Le Moine, Pope, 
Leland ; (8.) L. Racine, Massillon, Ditton, Der/unn, D'Aguesseau, De Polignac; 



4.g4 NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII. 

The work of Grotius, De Veritate Religionis Christiana, is the 
one which opens the period of evidences which we are now con- 
sidering ; of which a notice may be found in Hallani's History of 
Literature, ii. 364, and in Tholuck, Verm. Schr. i. 158 ; but no 
very definite cause can be pointed out why it was written. It 
was merely indeed one of the class of treatises already described 
(Notes 4 and 5), which devoted a portion of space to the contro- 
versy with the Jews and Mahometans. It is when a new stand- 
point had been assumed by scepticism, and the causes, intellectual 
or moral, which have been pointed out in these lectures, had be- 
gun to create a real peril, that writings on the evidences begin to 
derive a new value and assume a new form. 

"We shall give an account of them according to countries. 
The English works of evidence. — Those which were called forth 
in England by Deism were of several kinds. Perhaps they may 
be arranged under four heads. 

The first class consists of specific answers' to certain books, 
published from time to time ; of which kind are most of those 
which are named in the foot-notes to Lecture IV. Waterland's 
reply to Tindal is a type of this class. Occupied with tracking the 
opponent from point to point of his work, such replies, though 
important while the sceptical book is operating for evil, become 
obsolete along with the war of which they are a part, and hence- 
forth are only valuable in literary history, unless, as in the special 
instance of Bentley's Phileleutherus Lipsiensis in reply to Collins, 
they are such marvellous instances of dialectical ability and liter- 
ary acuteness that they possess a philosophical value as works of 
power, when their instructiveness has ceased. 

A second kind consisted of homilies rather than arguments; 
sermons to Christian people, warning them against forms of un- 

(9) Saurin, Buffer, Warburton, Tournemine, Bentley, Littleton, Seed, Fabricius, 
Addison, De Bern id, J J. Rousseau; (10.) Para du Phanjas, Le roi Stanislas, 
Turgot, Stattler, West, Beauzee; (11.) Bergier, Gerdil, Thomas, Bonnet, De Crillon, 
Euler, Delamarre, Caraccioli, Jennings; (12.) Duhamel, S. Ligvori, Butler, Bul- 
let, Vauvenargues, Guenard, Blair, De Pompignan, De Luc, Porteus, Gerard ; 
(13.) Diessbach, Jacques, Lamourette, Laharpe, Le Cos, Du Voisin, De la Luzerne, 
Schmitt, Pointer ; (14) Moore, Silvio Pellico, Lingard, Brunati, Manzoni, Paley, 
Perrone, L,ambruschini, Dorleans, Campien, Fr. Perennes; (15 ) Wiseman, Buck- 
land, Marcel de Serres, Keith, Chalmers; (16.) Dupin Aine, Gregoire XVI; (17.) 
Cattet, Milner, Sabatier ; (18.) Bolgeni, Morris, Chassay, Lombroso et Consoni— 
contenant les apologies de 117 auteurs. repandues dans 180 vol.; traduites pour la 
plupart des diverses langues dans lesquelles elles avaienl ete ecriles ; reproduces 
integralement non par en-traits. Ouvrage egalement necessaire d ceux qui ne 
croient pas, d ceux qui doutent, et a ceux qui croienl, 20 vol. in 4to. Prix : 120 fr. 
(Jhaque volume se vend separement, 7 fr. The references in the above title are to 
the volumes of the work. 

There is an important article on the literature of Apologetics in the North 
British Review, No. 30, August 1851, the writer of which nays that the claim that 
the above works are translated " integralement" is not literally correct; passages 
which assault the church of Rome being omitted. He considers that among the 
works of the above-named series which are not known in England, the most im- 
portant arc, Stattler, Certitude de la Religion revelee par Jesus Christ; Beauz6e, 
Exposition des Preuves Ilistoriques de la Religion Chretienne ; Ablio Para du 
Phanjas, Les Principes de la Sainte Philosophie concilies avec cev'x de la Religion; 
Cardinal de Vends, La Religion Vengee; Cardinal Polignae, Anti- Lucretius. 



Lbct. VIII ] NOTE 49. 4(35 

belief, and regarding unbelief from a practical point of view rather 
than a speculative ; and discussing, as would appropriately belong 
to such an object, the moral to the exclusion of the intellectual 
causes of doubt. Some of Tillotson's sermons are an example of 
the highest of this kind of works. . The value of this class is two- 
fold : in a purely pastoral point of view, the suggestions which 
they contain concerning the moral causes of doubt being founded 
on the real facts of the human heart, and on the declarations of scrip- 
ture, have a lasting value ; and in a literary point of view, these 
works contribute to the knowledge of the state of public feeling 
of the time. This is seen in this instance. Until about the end 
of the seventeenth century, there is no clear perception, except 
among the very highest of this class of writers, of the particular 
character of the forms of doubt against which their remarks are 
directed. The general name, Atheism, is used vaguely, to describe 
every form of unbelief. This fact tells its tale. It witnesses to 
the consciousness that they lived in an age of restlessness, when 
change of creed was going on, and doubt was prevalent ; but when 
unbelief had not shaped itself into form, and found as yet few 
organs of expression. ' We are reminded of the works before 
named of the fifteenth century (p. 93 seq. 104.) At that time 
doubt and restlessness prevailed, as we learn from the frequent 
references to it ; yet the works which transmit the knowledge of 
it to us are few, and the allusions to it vague : while the works 
of evidence then written are directed against antiquated forms of 
it, — Mahometan, Jewish, or philosophical. In like manner, in the 
seventeenth age, we see, as we look back, that the Christian ser- 
mons were mostly directed against older forms of unbelief, — the 
atheism of the ancients, or of the Paduan school ; and that the 
contemporary unbelief had not become definite enough to enable 
the Christian writers to apprehend its nature. This fact too ex- 
plains another circumstance. The preachers evince a bitterness, 
which is not merely the rudeness common in that age on all sub- 
jects, nor the indignation which arises from solicitude for souls, 
common in all ages on a subject so momentous as salvation ; but 
it is the bitterness of alarm. There is a margin in their expres- 
sion of vituperation, which is only to be explained by the fact, 
that the absence of a clear statement of the grounds of doubt, such 
as was subsequently given in the eighteenth century, deprived the 
preachers of the means of understanding the alleged excuse for the 
prevailing doubt. They appear not to be conscious of the causes 
which could create in the minds of others a restlessness which 
they did not feel themselves. They seem like persons living in a 
state of political society, who are conscious of a vast amount of 
general dissatisfaction, and a suspicion of a plot against society, 
the authors of which are unknown, as well as the causes of their 
supposed grievances; and where the danger is necessarily 
heightened from the very absence of knowledge as to its precise 
amount. 

20* 



4 Q(3 ' NOTE 49. [-Lect. VIII. 

A third class of the English apologies consists of works which 
have neither the speciality of the first class, nor the vagueness of 
the second. They were directed against special writers and par- 
ticular books ; but instead of being adapted as a detailed reply, 
chapter by chapter, to the special work, the authors of them seized 
hold of the central errors of the unbeliever, or the central truths 
by. which he was to be refuted. The works of the two Chandlers 
against Collins, and Leland's work on the. deists, rise into this tone 
at times. Bishop Gibson's later Pastorals against Woolston are a 
good type of it ; and still better, many of the courses of Boyle 
Lectures; and above all, Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, 

There is a fourth class of works, of a grander type, which re- 
semble the one just named, in discussing subjects rather than 
books ; but differ in that they are not directed against particular 
books or men, but take the largest and loftiest view of the evi- 
dences of Christianity. The first of this class, though a small one, 
is Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. The best examples are, 
Things Divine and Human conceived of by Analogy, by Dr. Peter 
Browne, 1733 ; and the Analogy of Bishop Butler, in reference to 
the Philosophical Evidence of Christianity; with the works of 
Larduer and Paley in reference to the Historical. Books of this 
cla>s are elevated above what is local or national, and are in some 

Sense a ktijulii ey del. 

After this description of the different classes. of works of evi- 
dence, it remains to give a brief notice of a few of the more im- 
portant writers, especially of the two latter classes, in chronologi- 
cal order. 

Omitting the repetition of those books named in the foot-notes 
of Lect. IV. which were directed against Herbert, Hobbes, and 
Blount, and which, as already remarked, belonged to the first of 
the four classes just named,, and also the enumeration of the vari- 
ous sermons which belong to the second, we meet with the follow- 
ing writers: — Robert Boyle (1G2G-1G91), an intelligent philoso- 
pher and devout Christian, who wrote works to reconcile reason 
and religion, suggested by the growth of new sciences; and with 
Ray, who first supplied materials for the argument for natural re- 
ligion, drawn from final causes, 1G91 ; and Stillingfieet, who in- 
vestigated religion from the literary side, as the two just named 
from the scientific. Boyle not only wrote himself on the Evi- 
dences, but founded the Boyle Lectures,'" a series which was 

25 In naming the Boyle Lectures, it may be permitted to the writer of these lec- 
tures to express the regret which he hue often felt, that there is no history written 
of the, various apologetic Lectures, and of the works which they called forth , 
such, e. g. as the Boyle (1G92), Lady Moyer 0719), Warburton (1772), Bampton 
(1780), Donnellan (1794), and Hulsean Lectures (1820), in the Church ; and the Limo 
Street (1730), Berry Street (1733), Coward (1739;, and Congregational Lectures 
(1833), among the Dissenters ; and more generally that there is no history of Eng- 
lish theology and of English theological literature. Much as we need a fair account 
of the English Church, viewed in its external and its constitutional history, we still 
more need a history which would enter into the inner life, and give its intellectual 
and spiritual history. Such a work would not only give a detailed account of the 
various works on evidence and of the other literature, but would enter into the 



Lbct. VIII ] JS'OTE 40. ^.Q'J 

mainly composed of works written by men of real ability, and 
contains several treatises of value, as works of mind, as well as in- 
struction. Among the series may be named those of Bentlev 
(1692); Kidder, 1694; Bp. Williams, 1695 ; Gastrell, 1697; Dean 
Stanhope, 1701 ; Dr. Clarke, 1704, 5 ; Derham, 1711 ; Ibbot, 1713 ; 
Gurdon, 1721 ; Berriman, 1730 ; Worthington, 1766 ; Owen, 1769 : 
all of which belong to the third of the classes named above, while 
one or two approach to the grandeur of the fourth. 

Among separate treatises, the popular ones by the Non-juror 
Charles Leslie (tl722), Short Method with the Deists; Jenkins's' 
Reasonableness of Christianity, 1721 ; Foster's Usefulness and 
Truth of Christianity, against Tindal; and Bp. Sherlock's Trial of 
the Witnesses, against Woolston ; Lyttelton on St. Paul's Conver- 
sion; Conybeare's Defence of Revelation, 1732; Warburton's Di- 
vine Legation of Moses ; are the best known. A complete list of 
the respective replies to deist writers may be found under the crit- 
icism of each writer, in Leland's Deists, and Lechler's Gesch. des 
Engl. Deismus. The great work of Bishop Butler, which appear- 
ed in 1736, has been sufficiently discussed in Lect. IV. p. 157 seq. 
It was the recapitulation and condensation of all the arguments 
that had been previously used; but possessed the largeness of 
treatment and originality of combination of a mind which had not 
so much borrowed the thoughts of others as been educated by 
them. Balguy's works also, though brief, are scarcely inferior. 
(See his Discourse on Reason and Faith, vol. i. serm. i-vii; vol. ii. 
serm. ii, iii, iv ; vol. iv. serm. ii. and iii.) 

We have already pointed out (p. 207), that in the latter half of 
the century, the historical rather than the moral evidences were 
developed. The philosophical argument preceded in time, as in 
logic. First, the religion of nature was proved : at this point the 
deist halted ; the Christian advanced farther. The chasm be- 
tween it and revealed religion was bridged at first by probabil- 
ity ; next by Butler's argument from analogy, put as a dilcm- 

causes and character of the various schools of thought which have existed in each 
age ,— e. g. of the struggle of semi-Romanist and Calvinistic principles in Eliza- 
beth's reign :— in the next age, the reproduction of the teaching of the Greek a? . 
distinct from the Latin Fathers in Andrewes and Laud ; the Arminianism of Hales 
and Chilling-worth ; the Calvinism of the Puritans : again, later, the rise of the 
philosophical latitudinarianism of Whichcote, More, and Cudworth ; the theologi- 
cal position of the non-jurors ; the Arian tendencies of Clarke and Whi6ton ; the 
cold want of spirituality of divines of the type of Hoadley ; the reasoning school of 
Butler, the evangelical revival of Wesley and Simeon; and, in the nineteenth 
century, the philosophical revival under Coleridge, and the ecclesiastical in the 
Tracts for the Times. Subjects like these, if treated not only in a literary manner, 
but in connection with their philosophical relations, would lift the history above a 
merely national purpose, and make it a lasting contribution to the history of the 
human mind. If executed worthily, such a work might take a rank along with 
the grand works on literature of Hallam. Much as the present taste for documen- 
tary history is to be commended, and the publication of ancient historic documents 
to be desired, it is to be hoped that it will not lead to the divorce of history from 
philosophy. History becomes mere antiquarianism, if the philosopher is not .at 
hand to build its parts into the general history of humanity. Philosophy becomes 
an hypothesis, if it is disconnected from the actual exemplification of its principles 
on the theatre of the world. 



468 NOTE 49. [Lkct. VIII. 

ma to silence those who objected to revelation, but capable, as 
shown in Lect. IV. of being used as a direct argument to lead the 
mind to revelation ; thirdly, by the historic method, which as- 
serted that miracles attested a revelation, even without other 
evidence. The argument in all cases however, whether philoso- 
phical or historical, was an appeal to reason ; either evidence of 
probability or of fact ; and was in no case an appeal to the au- 
thority of the church. 

Accordingly, the probability of revelation having been shown, 
and the attacks on its moral character parried, the question be- 
came in a great degree historical, and resolved itself into an ex- 
amination either of the external evidence arising from early testi- 
monies, which could be gathered, to corroborate the facts, and to 
vindicate the honesty of the writers, or of the internal critical 
evidence of undesigned coincidences in their writings. (See 
Note 48.) The first of these occupied the attention of Lardner 
(1684-1768). His Credibility was published 1727-57. The Col- 
lection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies (1764-7.) The 
second and third brandies occupied the attention of Paley ; the 
one in the Evidences, the other in the Horee Paulinse. 26 

Before the close of the century the real danger from deism hacl 
passed, and the natural demand for evidences had therefore in a 
great degree ceased. Consequently the works which appeared 
were generally a recapitulation or summary of the whole argu- 
ments, often neat and judicious, (;is is seen at a later time in Van 
Mildert's Boyle Lectures, vol. ii. 1805; and in a grander manner in 
Chalmers's works, vol. i-iv.) ; or in developments of particular 
subjects, as in Bishop Watson's replies to Gibbon and to Paine; 
(See p. 198, 199, note); or in Dean Graves's work on the Penta- 
teuch, 1807. 

It is only in recent years that a new phase of unbelief, a spe- 
cies of eclecticism rather than positive unbelief, has arisen in Eng- 
land, which is not the legitimate successor of the old deism, but 
of the speculative thought of the Continent; and only within re- 
cent years that writers on evidences have directed their attention 
to it. In the line of the Bampton Lectures, for example, which, 
as one of the classes of annually recurring volumes of evidences, 
is supposed to keep pace with contemporary forms of doubt, and 
may therefore be taken as one means of measuring dates in the 
corresponding history of unbelief; it is not until about 1852 that 
the writers showed an acquaintance with these forms of doubt de- 
rived from foreign literature. The first course 27 which touched 
upon them was that of Mr. Riddle, 1852, on the Natural History 
of Infidelity ; and the first especially directed to them was that in 

26 Paley's argument 1ms been extended to the Gospels and other parts of Scrip- 
ture by tlie lamented Professor Blunt. (Cfr. also his Essay on Paley, reprinted 
from the Quarterly Review, Oct. 1828.) 

27 The course for 1849, on the Evidences, by Mr. Michel!, marked the commence- 
ment of the consciousness of tho spread of fv^a thought ; but was not directed to 
the novel fore gi forms of it. 



Lbct. VIII.] NOTE 49. 4.(39 

1853 by Dr. Thomson, on the Atoning Work of Christ; since which 
time only two courses, those of Mr. Mansel, 1858, on The Limits 
of Religious Thought; and of Mr. Rawlinson, in 1859, 2fl on The 
Historical Evidences of the Truth of Scripture, have been directed 
to the subject, the one to the philosophy of religion studied on its 
psychological side, the other to the historical evidences. 

Among isolated works on evidences not forming parts of a gen- 
eral series, it is hard to make a selection without unfairness. We. 
can only cite a few, premising that silence in reference to the rest 
is not to be considered to be censure, nor to mark the want of a 
cordial and grateful acknowledgment of the utility of many smaller 
works of evidences in the present day, dictated by deep love for 
Christ; whose authors, though omitted in this humble record, 
have their reward in being instruments of religious usefulness by 
means of their works, and are doubtless not unnoticed by a merci- 
ful Saviour, who looks down with love on all who strive to spread 
his truth.- 

The following seem to merit notice. First, the arguments in 
favour of natural religion, drawn from physical science, stated in 
the Bridgewater Treatises, analogous to the earlier works of Der- 
ham and Paley ; the connection of science with revelation, in Car- 
dinal Wiseman's Lectures delivered in Rome, 2d ed. 1842, (which 
are a little obsolete, but very masterly ;) several works by Dr. 
M'Cosh, Divine Government, — Typical Forms, &c. in which the 
author takes a large view of the world, and of the province of re- 
vealed religion in the scheme of general truth, founded mainly on 
Butler; also a work of Dr. Buchanan, Modern Atheism, valuable 
for its literary materials as much as for its argument ; and of T. 
Erskine on the Internal Evidences, 1821. The Bampton Lectures 
of Mr. Miller in 1817 also deserve to be singled out as a thought- 
ful and original exhibition of the argument in one branch of the 
internal evidence ; The Divine Authority of Scripture asserted from 
its adaptation to the real state of human nature ; also Mr. Davison's 
Warourton Lectures on Prophecy, 1825. Among works directed 
to special subjects, we ought to specify, The Restoration of Belief, 
by Mr. Isaac Taylor, intended indirectly against speculations such 
as those of the Tubingen school ; and an able and thoughtful work 
on the subject of the superhuman character of Christ, The Christ 
of History, by Mr. Young; also E. MialFs Bases of Belief ; Avith 
the two Burnett Prize Essays by Thompson and Tullock ; and a 
reply to Mr. Newman's Phases of Faith, viz. The Eclipse of Faith; 
and Letters of E. H. Grey son, by H. Eogers, constructed however 
partly on the argument of the dilemma. 29 The replies written to 
Essays and Reviews, especially Aids to Faith, ought to be added. 

We have reserved for separate mention one work, which as- 

28 The Lectures however of Dr. Hcssey in I860, though directed to a different 
subject, evince a knowledge of the literary studies of foreign theologians. 

29 The writer hopes that the note on p. 374 will not be considered an ungenerous 
censure of Mr. Rogers, who is selected because he is the -ablest and wisest of those 
writers who have used this argumei t. 



470 NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII. 

cends to the philosophy of the religious question, Mr. Mansel's 
Bampton Lectures, 1858, The Limits of Religious Thought, be- 
cause it is a work which is valuable for its method, even if the 
reader differs (as the author of these lectures does in some re- 
spects) from the philosophical principles maintained, or occasion- 
ally even from the results attained. 30 It is an attempt to recon- 
struct the argument of Butler from the subjective side. As Butler 
showed that the difficulties which are in revealed religion are 
equally applicable to natural ; so Mr. Mansel wishes to show that 
the difficulties which the mind feels in reference to religion are 
parallel to those which are felt by it in reference to philosophy. 
Since the time of Kant a subjective tone has passed over philoso- 
phy. The phenomena are now studied in the mind, not in nature; 
in our mode of viewing, not in the object viewed. And hence 
Butler's argument needed reconstructing on its psychological side. 
Mr. Mansel has attempted to effect this; and the book must al- 
ways in this respect have a value, even to the minds of those who 
are diametrically opposed to its principles and results. Even if 
the details were wrong, the method would be .correct, of studying 
psychology before ontology ; of finding the philosophy of religion, 
not, as Leibnitz attempted, objectively in a theodicee, but subjec- 
tively, by the analysis of the religious faculties; learning the 
length of the sounding-line before attempting to fathom the ocean. 

These remarks must suffice in reference to the history of Evi- 
dences in England. We shall now give an account of those which 
existed in France; which will be still more brief, because the 
works are considered to be of small general value, at least they 
have not a general reputation. 

2. The French woeks of evidence — In the middle of the' 
seventeenth century we meet with Pascal and Huet ; both of them, 
metaphysically speaking, sceptics, who disbelieved in the possibil- 
ity of finding truth apart from revelation ; 31 and with whom there- 
1 fore the object of evidences was to silence doubt rather than to 
remove it. (On Pascal, see Rogers's Essays, Essay reprinted 
from tie Edinburgh Review, January 1847; and on Huet, an arti- 
cle in the Quarterly Review, Ko. 194, September 1855, and the 
reference given p. 19. Also see Houtteville, introduction to La 
Religion Chreticnnc jjrouvee par des Fails, 1722.) 

Among the Roman catholics, at the close of the same century, 
were the following : Le Vassor (t 1718) ; the two Lamy 1 1710 and 15, 
and Denyse ; and in the eighteenth century, Houtteville, whose pre- 
face to his own work, an historical view of evidences and attacks to 
his own time, has been just named; Bonnet; D'Aguesseau, 1 1751 ; 
and Bergier t 1790: and among the Protestants, — Abbadie, 1 1727 ; 
and Jacquelot, 1 1708; nearly all of whom are treated of by Tho- 

30 It is hardly necessary to state, that Mr Maurice find Mr. Goldwin Smith, be- 
sides others, have -criticised this work in distinct publications. 

31 Ellis's work on The Knowledge of Divine Things, 1811, breathes a similar 
spirit in modern times. Cf'r. Note 44. 






Lhct. VIII.] NOTE 49. £j± 

lock {Verm. Schr. i. p. 28) and Walch {Bill. Thiol. Sel. ch. v. sect. 
6). Several more will be found in the Demonstrations EJcange- 
liques ; among which are Choiseul du. Plessis, Praslin, Polignac, 
Pe Bernis, Burner, Tournemine, and Gerdil ; the Lives of several 
of whom are in the Biographie Unvcerselle. 

Though some of these were men whose works were of ordi- 
nary respectability, they were by no means a match in greatness 
for the intellectual giants who prostituted their powers on behalf 
of unbelief; and on one occasion, when a prize essay had been 
offered for a work in behalf of Christianity, no work was deemed 
worthy of it. (Alison, History of Europe, i. 180.) Since the 
beginning of the present century, however, there has been a 
change. Whatever may be thought of the line of argument 
'adopted, the skill with which it has been put forward, and the 
ability of the minds that have given expression to it, is undoubted. 
Chateaubriand may be considered as the first who, with a full ap- 
preciation of the tastes and wants of modern society, tried to show 
not only the compatibility of Christianity with them, but that the 
I>erfection of society was only realized in it. The work of the 
Christian labourers who had to bring back France to Christianity 
was hard. It was not the apologist, acting, as in England, from 
the vantage ground of a powerful church against the Deist, who 
was making an attack on it; but it was a weak and feeble minor- 
ity acting against a powerful mass of educated intellect. The 
apologists were indirectly aided by philosophy. The philosophers 
did not aim primarily at religious truth, and we have had reason 
to take exception to many of their views; yet they rekindled in 
France the elements of natural religion, on which the Christians 
then proceeded to base revealed. The works of Jules Simon are 
the highest expression of it. (See Note 44.) 

The school of evidences that has existed, has been the church 
school of De Maistre, already described. (See Note 45, and the 
references given there.) With somewhat of the spirit of the 
writers of the fifteenth age, they have directed their efforts to re- 
establish the catholic church as the condition of re-establishing 
the Christian religion. To this we have already taken exception, 
Lecture VIL p. 300 ; and the remarks there given may suffice in 
reference to the movement. Yet the literary appreciation of the 
line of argument used by the older apologists, is perceptible in the 
large publication of Migne, already named. 

The other attempt in France to re-establish Christianity by 
Frotestant apologists, noticed in Lecture VIL p. 304, of which the 
ablest was Yinet, is rather directed against rationalism than 
against full unbelief; and aims to turn the flank of the rationalist 
argument, and, while accepting its premises, deny its conclusions. 
[On Vinet, see Note 46.) ' The problem which is now before the 
apologists is, not to show that Christianity is not imposture, but 
rather that it is not merely philosophy. (Compare the remarks 
of Strauss, at the close of his work on Reimarus, alluded to in 
Note 29. p. 427). 



£ f2 NOTE 49. [Lect. VIII 

There -now only remains the history of Apologetic in Ger- 
many. 

3. The German woeks of evidence. — As early as the end of 
the seventeenth century, we find the attention of Kortholt direct- 
ed to Spinoza ; and in the early part of the eighteenth we see, in 
the grand attempt of Leibnitz to find a philosophy of religion ; in 
Haller, 1705-77 ; in Euler, 1747, (for which see Tholuck, V. Schr. 
ii. 311—362, together with a list of others there given,) a proof of 
the attention which the Evidences received. The existence of 
works like J. A. Fabricius's Delectus Argumentorum, 1725 ; Eei- 
mannus, Historia Atheismi, 1725; Buddeus, De Atheismo, 1737; 
Stapfer, Inst. Theol. Polem. 1752; as well as the attention shown 
by the bibliographers, Pfaff, Walch, Fabricius, to the literature of 
Evidences, is a proof of the same fact. 

The replies were still directed against Deism, as in England or 
France. It is not till later in the century that rationalism ap- 
pears. When however it arose, writers were not wanting who 
opposed it. The history of the German theology has been treated 
so largely in Lectures YI. and YII. that it is only necessary to in- 
dicate the steps. The early deistic rationalism of Eeimarus and 
Lessing met its opponents in contemporary writers named in the 
notes to Lecture YI". The critical rationalism of Eichhorn and 
Paulas was really answered by the later critics, as was shown 
when we noticed that criticism gradually abandoned their view, 
and rescued itself from their extravagant opinions (p. 257 seq.), 
while the dogmatic rationalism which was connected with it was 
dispersed by the discussion on the province of the supernatural 
already described (p. 418). In the present century the aspect of 
the attack and of the defence has changed. The question had been 
as to the existence of the supernatural. 

In the present the question has been, If the supernatural be 
admitted, what is the capacity of man to discover it by the light 
of feeling or reason respectively, without revelation? Therefore, 
while in the last century it was important to show that the super- 
natural exists, and that the religion that taught it was not decep- 
tion ; in the present the endeavonr has been, to bring men from 
the supernatural to the biblical, and to make them feel that the 
Christian religion is not a mere mistake. Thus they have been 
led from the natural to the supernatural ; from the supernatu- 
ral to the revealed ; from the ideal to the historic. 32 The steps of 
this process in the present century have been twofold: — the phil- 
osophical Christianity of Schleiermacher, and the revival of bibli- 
cal religion. Neander has been already adduced (p. 364) as the 
type of the Christian movement which sought to unite the two : 
wishing to appropriate that which he believed, he strove to pre- 
sent Christianity as the highest form of the religious life ; as a life 
based on a doctrine ; the doctrine itself being based on a revealed 

82 The anti-Straussian Literature described in Note 38 is an illustration of the 
German apologetic. 



Lect. VIII.] NOTE 50. 4^3 

history. It must suffice thus to have indicated, without tracing 
into detail, the apologetic literature which has been partly named 
in the Notes of the lectures, and may be found by consulting the 
references there given. 

In all ages the purpose of Evidences has been conviction ; to 
offer the means of proof either by philosophy or by fact. In ar- 
guing with the heathen in the first age, the former plan was 
adopted; the school of Alexandria trying to lead men to Christian- 
ity as the highest philosophy : in the middle ages the same meth- 
od was adopted under the garb of philosophy, but with the alter- 
ation that the philosophy was one of form, not matter. In the 
later middle ages the appeal was to the Church : in the early con- 
tests with the Deists to the authority of reason, and to the Bible 
reached by means of this process ; in the later, to the Bible reach- 
ed through history and fact : in opposing the French infidelity the 
appeal was chiefly to authority ; in the early German the appeal 
was the same as in England; in the later German it has been a re- 
turn in spirit to that of the early fathers, or of the English apolo- 
gists of the eighteenth century, but based on a deeper philosophy ; 
an appeal to feeling or intuition, and not to reflective reason; and 
through these ultimately to the Bible. 



Note 50. p. 373. 

ON TTIE HISTORY OF THE DOCTEINE OF 1KSPIEAT10N. 

The subject of the history of inspiration has been named both 
in Lect. III. and VIII. It may be useful therefore to point out 
the sources for the study of it. 

The history of it is briefly sketched in Hagenbach's Dogmen- 
geschichte, § 32, 121, 161, 243, 292. A valuable catena of passages 
relative to the primitive doctrine of inspiration is given in Mr. 
Westcott's Introduction to the Gospels, Appendix B. second edi- 
tion, 1860 ; and a continuation of the history to more recent peri- 
ods in Dr. Lee's important work on Inspiration, especially in Ap- 
pendices C and G ; and in Tholuck's Doctrine of Inspiration, trans- 
lated in the Journal of Sacred Literature, July 1854. 

It appears that the theories held respecting inspiration in dif- 
ferent ages may be arranged under three classes : 

1. The belief in a full inspiration was held from the earliest 
times, with the few exceptions observable in occasional remarks 
of Origen, Jerome, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Euthymiiis Ziga- 
benus (in the twelfth century). 

2. Traces after a time begin to appear of a disposition, (a) to 
admit that the inspiration ought to be regarded as appertaining to 
the proper material of the revelation, viz. religion ; but at the 
same time to maintain firmly the full inspiration of the religious 



474 NOTE 50. [Lect. VIII. 

elements of scripture. This view occurs in the allusions of the 
writers just named, and existed in the seventeenth century in the 
Helmstadt school of Calixt in Germany, and the Saumur school 
of Amyrault, Cameron, and Placceus, in France ; and is stated de- 
cidedly by a series of writers in the English church. Some of the 
latter go so far as to avow, (/3) that the value of the religious ele- 
ment in the revelation would not be lessened if errors were ad- 
mitted in the scientific and miscellaneous matter which accom- 
panies it. This admission increased after the speculations of 
Spinoza and the pressure of the Deist objections. 

3. A third theory was suggested by Maimonides, which was re- 
vived by Spinoza, and has been held among many of the rational- 
ists in' Germany, and has lately appeared in English literature: 
this theory is, that the book does not, even in its religious element, 
differ in kind from other books, but only in degree. It will be ob- 
served that a wide chasm separates this view from either of those 
named under the. second head ; the only point in common being, 
that in all alike the writers agree that the nature of inspiration 
mast be learned from experience, and not be determined antece- 
dently by our own notions of optimism, without examining the 
real contents of revelation. Coleridge would by many be consid- 
ered to give expression to this third theory in his Confessions of 
an Inquiring Spirit. Perhaps however he hovered between it 
and the one previously named ; being anxious rather to identify 
inspiration psychologically with one form of the Nous or " Rea- 
son," than theologically lo confound the material of revelation 
with truth acquired by natural means. 

It is not the purpose of this note to discuss the true view of 
inspiration ; but merely to state the historic facts. The writer 
may however be allowed to repeat what has been already implied 
in the preface, that he dissents entirely from the third of these 
views. To him there seems evidence for believing that the dog- 
matic teaching implied on religious subjects in holy scripture is a 
communication of supernatural truth, miraculously revealed from 
the world invisible. Cfr. p. 29. 

On the subject of inspiration, in addition to the works above 
named, instruction will be derived from the sources indicated in 
the Essay on Inspiration in Bp. Watson's Tracts, 1785, vol. iv. pp. 
5 and 469 ; and from Dean Harvey Goodwin's Hulsean Lectures, 
first course, lectures vii. and viii. The first of the above-named 
views is stated in Gaussen's work on Theopneustie, and on the 
Canon; the third in Morell's Philosophy of Religion, c. iv ; and 
in the first three essays of Scherer's Melanges de Grit. Religieuse. 

A list of those theologians w T ho have held the second class of 
views above named, together with the extracts from their writ- 
ings, is given by Dr. S. Davidson in his Facts, Statements, &c. con- 
cerning vol. ii. of ed. x. of Home's Introduction, 1857; and Mr. 
Stephen, in his defence of Dr. Ii. Williams, 18C2, has quoted some 



Lbct. VIII.] NOTE 50. 4^5 

of the same passages, and added a few more (Bef. pp. 127-160. r3 ) 
As the reader was referred hither from Lecture III. p. 114. for the 
proof of the assertion there made, that this theory had been large- 
ly held in the last century in England, it seems fair here to add 
the references. At the same time this list is not given with the 
view of endorsing the views of these writers, but merely to prove 
the accuracy of the assertion in the text of Lectures III. and VIII. 
Among English divines, those who have asserted the form of 
the theory named above as No. 2 a, are, Howe (Biv. Author, of 
Scripture, lecture viii. and ix.) ; Bishop Williams {Boyle Led. 
serm. iv. pp. 133, 4) ; Burnet (Article vi. p. 157. Oxford ed. 1814) ; 
Lowth (Vind.of Biv. Auth. and Inspir. of Old and New Testa- 
ment, -p. 45 seq.) ; Hey (Theol. Lect. i. 90); Watson {Tracts, iv. 
446) ; Bishop Law {Theory of Religion) ; Tomline {Theology, i. 
21) ; Dr. J. Barrow (Bissertatio?is, 1819, fourth Diss.) ; Dean Oony- 
beare (Theolog. Lect. p. 186); Bishop Hinds (Inspir. of Script, pp. 
151, 2); Bishop Daniel Wilson (lect. xiii. on Evidences, i. 509); 
Parry (Ina. into Nat. oflnsp. of Apost. pp. 26, 27) ; Bishop Bloni- 
iield {Lect. on Actsy. 88-90). 

^ Among those who have gone so far as to hold the form of the 
theory above given as No. 2 o, are, Baxter (Method. Theol. Chr. 
part iii. ch. xii. 9. 4. ; Tillotson (Worlcs, fol. iii. p. 449. serm. 168) ; 
Doddridge (on Inspir.) ; Warburton (Doctr. of Grace, book i. ch. 
vii; Bishop Horsley (serm. 89 on Ecc. xii. 7. vol. iii. p. 175); 
Bishop Kandolph (Rem. on Michaelis Introd. pp. 15, 16) ; Paley 
(.Evidences of Christianity, part iii. ch. ii) ; Whately (Ess. on Bit}', 
in St. Paul, Ess. i. and ix; Sermons on Festivals, p. 90 ; Pccnl. of 
Christianity ,-p. 233) ; Hampden (BamptonLect. pp. 301, 2) ; Thirl- 
wall (Schleiermacher's Liikc, Introd. p. 15) ; Bishop Heber (Barnpt. 
Lect. viii. p. 577); Thomas Scott (Essay on Inspir. p. 3) ; Dr. Fye 
Smith (Script, and Geol. 276, 237. third ed.) ; Deau Alford (Pro- 
leg, to Gosp. ed. 1859) vol. i. ch. i. § 22. 34 

It will be observed however, that both these classes of writers 
are separated by a chasm from those which belong to the third 
class above named ; inasmuch'' as they hold inspiration to be not 
only miraculous in origin, but different in kind from even the 
highest forms of unassisted human intelligence. 

33 Dr. Puscy also, in his Hist. Inq. on German Theol. p 2. ch. v, quoted many 
passages illustrative of the history of the same fact. He has, however, subse- 
quently disavowed all concurrence in the opinions of the writers cited. 

34 Among writers who lived earlier than the periods alluded to in the passages 
of Lectures III. and VIII., the following are also cited in the work? before named" 
Origen (Comm. in Joan.W. 151. ed. Huet), Jerome (Comm. in Gal iii. vol. iv) ; 
Augustin (in Joan. iv. 1); Zuinglius (Schrift.-von Usteri, ii. 247); Calvin (Comm. 
on Hebr. ii. 21. Rom. iii. 4. Rom. ii. 8), Bnllinger (on 1 Cor. x. 8). Castellio (Dial. 
ii. de Elect, on Rom. ix), Erasmus (on Matt, ii); Grotius (Vot pt^o Pac. art. de 
Can. Script.); Episcopius (Inst. Theol. iv. § 1). Passages of Hooker and Chilling 
worth were also cited by Mr. Stephen. 



INDEX 



The figures refer to the pages, without distinction of text 
from foot-notes. 



Abbe Paris, miracles of, 150. 

Abelard; a nominalist, 9; character of, 
81; works of, 81; Sic et Nan, 82-S4; 
different opinions concerning his scep- 
ticism, 84; a Biblical critic, 85. 

Accommodation, principle of, 222; used 
by English divines, 223. 

Acts, book of, controversy in Germany 
concerning. 867. 

Ahmed Ibn Zain Elebedin, a Mahometan 
writer against Christianity, 3S9 

Alexander" Hales (Alesius), a scholastic, 
90. 

Alexander of Aphrodisias, Pantheism at 
Padua derived from, 101. 

Alexander of Pontus, named by Lucian, 
47,51. 

Alexander VII. pope, prohibits Lueian's 
Peregrinus, 50. 

Alexandrian school of Fathers, 59 ; opin- 
ions held concerning the relation of 
Christianity to other religions, 3S6. 

Allesory, distinguished from myth and 
parable, 269. 

Allen's Modern Judaism, 3S7. 

Alphonso de Spina, treatise against Ma- 
hometans, 388. 

Amyntor of Toland, 129. 

Angelo Mai, edition by, of Fronto, 4S; 
of Porphyry's letter to Marcella, 71. 

An net Paul, a Deist writer, 143. 

Anselm, view of the Atonement, 369; 
works of, 461. 

Apollinaris, 455, 456. - 

Apollonius of Tyana, 47, 62 seq. 408. 

Apologetic, office of, 159, 352. 

Apologetic Lectures. See. Lectures: 

Apologies of early fathers, 453 ; Pres- 
sense's mode of classifying, 453 ; sources 
for studying, 454, 460; table of, 455; 
African school of, 457; Alexandrian 
school of, 457; peculiarity of and in- 
feriority to modern, 460. 

Apprehend, how distinguished from com- 
prehend, 369. 



Aquinas, his dogmatic position defensive, 

9, 462. 
Argens. See TTArgens. 
Arian tendency in English church, 392. 
Ariosto, sceptical jests in, 95. 
Aristotle, criticism on Plato by, 42. 
Arminius, 392; Arminians, ib. 
Arndt, J. a Pietist, 424. 
Arnobius's Apology, 458. 
Arnold of Brescia, 85. 
Arnold, German church historian, pref. 

xvii. 
Ass, worship of, imputed to Christians, 

405. 
Association mental, works on, 355. 
Astruc, first to distinguish documents in 

Genesis, 254. 
Atheism, causes of in modern limes, 358; 

history of the uses of the term, 413. 
Athena°:oras, apolosjy of, 456. 
Atonement, 335, 360, 366, 369, 3S6 ; liter- 
ary history of, 363. 
Aufkldrung-zeit, 227. 
Auirustin on Porphyry, 62; De Civ. Dei, 

459; comparison with Aquinas, 460. 
Aurelius, Marcus, views of, 45. 
Averroes. influence of, 90 ; altered tone 

of Christians towards, ib. ; pantheism 

derived from, 100; threefold influence 

of, 101. 
Avesta Zend, 3S2< 

B. 

Bacon, influence of, 10; works respecting. 
105 ; his philosophy of method, 117. 

Bahrdt, disciple of Semler, 227. 

Balguy, Dr. works on the Christian evi- 
dences, 467. 

Bampton, John, 207. 

Bampton Lectures, 37, 39, 366, 368, 335, 
469. 

Bangorian Controversy, 125. 

Baronius, the church "historian, pref. xvi. 

Barre. See La Burr's. 

Bartholmess, le Scept. Theol, 19; Hid. 
Crit. 25. 



478 



INDEX. 




Bartollocci, Lexicon, 3S6. 
Basedow, institutions of, 219, 227. 
Basle, theology of the university of, 444. 
Bauer, Bruno, 275. 
Bauer, L. 441. 

Baumgarten-Crusius, 41, 442. 
Baur/Chr. of Tubingen, work on Gnosis, 

39; on Celsus, 50^ on Apollonius, (52; 

theological position, 27S : life and works, 

436. 
Bautain, abbe, 44S. 
Bayle, 16S. 

Bazard, the Simonian, 294. 
Beard's Voices of the Church, 273. 
Beaufort, critic of Roman history, 144. 
Bello, Italian poet, 95. 
Bembo, cardinal, 96. 
Benedictines on Abelard's Sic et Non, 

S3. 
Benstel, 17, 132. 
Bentham, Jeremy, remarks on by J. S. 

Mill, 310. 
Bentley, Fhalaris, 132; Phileleutherus 

Lipsiensis, 464. 
Berkeley, Bp. 149, 233. 
Berlin, university of, 21 S, 241, 244. 
Bernard, St. contest of with Abelard, 81, 

82. 
Berry Street Lecture, 466. 
Beiurnot, Les Juifs, 3S5. 
Bhagavat Gita, 382. 
Bible, statement of modern difficulty on, 

372. 
Biblia Pauperum, 222. 
Bibliander, collection of works against 

Mahometanism, 3SS. 
Bibliolatry, origin of the term, 233. 
Bibliotheoa Fratrv/m Polonorum, 391. 
Bibliotheca Sacra, 45, 250, 279, 436, 439. 

pref. xvii. 
Biddle, J. the English unitarian, 392. 
Bilderdyk, Dutch poet, 446. 
Bini Carlo, Italian poet, 16. 
Biographical treatment of doubt, use of, 

32 seq. 
Biran. See De Biran. 
Blackhall, against Toland, 129. 
Blackwood's Magazine on Renan, 302. 
Bleda's Defensio Fidei, 388. 
Blount, C. the deist, 64, 123, 124. 
Blount, Prof, works of, 309, 466. 
Boccaccio, Le Tre Annel/a, 89. 
Bocthius quotes Porphyry on predication, 

56, 79. 
Bolingbroke, works and opinions, 144 

seq. 
Bolton, Hulsean Prize Essay, 73, 451. 
Bonald, 44S. 

Boone, Shenrold, argument on divine at- 
tributes, 26. 
Boulmier, Life of Bayle, 168. 
Boyle, Robert, 207, 466. 
Boyle Lectures, 466; list of several, 467. 
Bretschneider, German Theologiau. 231, 

234, 268. 
Bridgewater Treatises, 469. 
British Quarterly Review, on Italian Re- 
naissance, 94 ; on Spinoza, 106 ; on 



German theology, 232 ; on Schleier- 
macher, 241 ; on modern German theo- 
logy, 284 ; on Comte, 295. 

Browne, Dr. Peter, 466. 

Brucker ou Scholastic philosophy, 77. 

Bruno Giordano, 102. 

Buchanan on Atheism, 469. 

Buckle, on the state of France in the 
eighteenth century, 164; on office of 
free thought, 349. 

Buddeus, 419. 

Buddhism, 46, 3S3, 3S5. 

Buddhist pilgrims, 3S2. 

Bunsen, Chevalier, 250. 

Burgh, reputed a deist, 202. 

Burnouf, Eugene on Zend, 3S1. 

Burton, Dr. on Gnostics,.39, 40. 

Butler, Bp. relation to Shaftesbury, 131 ; 
account of his works, 157 seq. ; points 
in his Analogy weakened, 157 ; at- 
tacks on the Analogy, 158 ; his origi- 
nality, 15S; his position, 362; "W be- 
well on his Ethics, 369 ; value of, 451, 
466, 467. 

Butler, Charles, works of, 110, 164, 165. 

Buxtorf on Hebrew vowel points, 113. 

Byron, Vision of Judgment, 95; his scep- 
ticism, 203. 



Cabanis, 191, 290 

Cabbala, Franck on, 39. 

Galas, the family of, 171. 

Calderon, 95. 

Campanella, 102. 

Canon, date when fixed, 58; works on, 
5S ; Toland on, 129. 

Cantacuzene, 3S8. 

Canz ofTiibii gen, 216. 

Capellus, on Hebrew vowel points, 113. 

Cappadose, 445. 

Cardan, 102. 

Carlisle, an unbeliever in the present 
century, 202. 

Carlyle, T. his works and influence, 315 
seq. 

Carmen Memoriale. 3S5. 

Causes in Christianity for a struggle with 
free thought, 1, 2; in the nature of man 
for ditto,"l3-32; moral causes of doubt, 
pref. vii. ; 13, 14-1 S, 348, 464; intellec- 
tual of ditto, 30; instances of, 17; why 
selected for study, pref., 345; peculiar- 
ity of analysis of them, 346; of unbelief 
in old heathens, 71; of ditto in tho 
present age, 358; why the work is writ- 
ten, pref. xii. 

Celsus, named, S; character and life, 50, 
76 ; work of, analysed, 50 seq. ; discuss- 
ed, 403 ; Pressense on, 403. 

Century, nineteenth, comparison of with 
third century A. D. 356, 357. 

Chaldce letters, when introduced* into 
Judaea, 3S5. 

Chalmers's works, 468. 

Chandlers, the, against Collins, 466. 

Change of tone in modern doubt, 308. 



INDEX. 



479 



Channing, 392. 

Charron, 16S. 

Chateaubriand, 291. 
Chissuk Emuna, 386. 
Christianity not Mysterious, of Toland, 
' 127 ; ditto as old as Creation, of Tiu- 
dal, 13S. 

Christianity, peculiarities in it which are 
the ground of attack by free thought, 1, 
2. See Cause. 

Christian Remembrancer, on French 
preachers, 300. 

Christology of Strauss, 433. 

Chronicles, Books of, works on, 17. 

Chrysostom, compared to Bernard, 4(30. 

Chubb, T. the deist, 142. 

Church, see History, English, French. 

Classification of German theologians, 439. 

Claudius, 243. 

Clement, the apology of, 457. 

Clementines, the, 47, 400. 

Clergy, education of in reference to doubt, 
344. 

Cocceius, allegorical interpretation of, 
222. 

Cocquerel, the two, 449. 

Colani, 305, 448. 

Coleridge, 25, 316; Mill on, 810; his sys- 
tem described, 830 seq. ; literature con- 
cerning, 331 ; on inspiration, 474. 

Collard, Eoyer, 447. 

Collins, the Deist, on Daniel, CO; views 
of explained, 133 seq. 

Combe, 312. 

Communism, French, 292. 294. 

Comparative study of religions, "see Re- 
ligion. 

Com'te, 32 ; system explained, 295 seq. 
312. 

Condillac, 148, 167. 

Conferences in Paris, history of, 300. 

Congregational Lectures, 466. 

Consciousness, the Chr stian, 246, 372. 

Constant, Benjamin, Polytheisnie, 44, S3; 
De la Religion, 8S7, 447. 

Convocation, proceedings of against To- 
land, 128. 

Cosmas Indicopleustes, 70. 

Costa, see Da Costa. 

Coteries in Paris in eighteenth century, 
178, 421. 

Courcelles, disturbs' readings of the Text, 
132. 

Cousin, 22, 26, 27; on Spinoza, 107; sys- 
tem explained, 296 seq. 396, 447. 

Coward, a materialist, 122. 

Coward Lecture, 466. 

Crescens, attack of on Christianity, 48. 

Creuzer, on mythologj^, 450. 

Criticism, two kinds of, pref. ix. ; standard 
for in this work, pref. xi. ; science of 
created by the Germans, 210. 

Cyril, work of against Julian, 410, 459. 



Da Costa,' converted Jew at Amsterdam, 

445. 
Daill6, on Ignatian Epistles, 132. 



D'Alembert, 178. 

Damascenus, J. 3S8. 

Dam iron, pref. xx. ; 191. 

Daniel, Book of, Porphyry's attack on, 60 
seq. ; commentators on, ib. ; Greek 
words in, ib. ; peculiarities of, ib. ; diffi- 
culties concerning it stated, 407. 

Dante on Averroes, 90. 

D'Argens, work on Julian, 65, 177. 

Darwin's theory of species, 79. 

Daub, German theologian, 265. 

D'Aubigne of Geneva, 444. 

Davidson, Dr. S. on Job, 5; on Inspira- 
tion, 474. 

De Biran, 394, 447. 

De Bonald, 448. 

D'Eckstein, 448. 

Deism, in England, 11; division of, 116, 
126, 144; name explained, 118; pecu- 
liarities of English, 154; introduced 
into Germany, 214, 216, 217, 338, 415; 
compared with unitarianism, 328. 

De la Monnaie, on the De Tribus Impos- 
toribus, 412. 

Deluge, difficulties on, 18. 

De Muistre, 19, 300, 447. 

Demoniacs, Semler on, 223. 

Demonstrations Erange/iqucs, a collec- 
tion of works on Evidences, 404. 

De Prades, 177. 

De Pressense, see Pressense\ 

Descartes, 10; works on, 106 ; method of, 
117. 

De Tracy, 191. 

Dewar on German theoloirv, pref. xxiv. 

De Wette, 18, 252, 429. 

DTdolbach, 181 seq. 

AuikeKTiKV of Plato, 7S. 

Diderot, life and works, 179 seq. 

Difenbach's Jud. Convert, and Jud. Con- 
vers. 3S6. 

Difficulties, chief in the present day, 357, 
866 seq. 

Disputatio Jechielis, 3S5. 

Dodwell, a deistical pamphlet of. 143. . 

Dogmatic theology in Germany in seven- 
teenth century, 212. 

Dolet, 16S. 

Dnllinger's Jndenthum, 42. 

Donnellan Lecture. 466. 

Dorner's Person Christi. 2S0; pref. 

Dort, synod of, 212. 

Doubt, causec of, see Cause, Biographic, 
Change. Utility. 

Douglas, Bp. J. Criterion, 151. 

Dragonnades, 165. 

D ura, image of, 407. 



Ecclesiastes, book of, 5. 

Ec'ectic school in France, 297, 446, new 

school of, 301. 
Ecrasez Vinfame, (^plained, 175. 
Edelmann, 227. 
Edinburgh Review on Correlation' of 

Force, 854; on mental association, 355. 
Education of the clergy at the present 

time, 344. 



480 



INDEX. 



Education of the World, Lessing not the 
real author of, 87. 

Eichhorn, rationalism of, 232. 

El, in composition of proper names, 431. 

Eleatic schools, 84. 

Ellis on Divine Things, 470. 

Eiohim, 255. 

Emerson, remarks on, 317. 

Encyclopaedists in France, ISO. 

Enfantia, the St. Simonian, 294. 

England, unbelief in, Lect. IV". and V. ; 
modern? forms of, Lect. VIII. and 329 
seq. ; books of, 338. 

English church, subdivisions of the his- 
tory of, 467. 

English divines, seven chief, 2S9. 

English, works of Evidences in, 465 seq. 

— works on Inspiration, 47o. 

Epicureans, opinions 'of ou religion, 42, 
43. 

Episcopius, 392. 

Ernesti, 220. 

Erskine's Evidences, 469. 

Esprit fort, compared with freethinker, 
416. 

Essays and Reviews, 330, 336. 

Este, Alphonso de, 228. 

Ethical school, rise of in England, 146. 

Eusebius on Porphyry, 56 seq. ; reply to 
Hierocles, 403, 459, 460. 

Euthymins Zigabenus, 888. 

Evanson on the Gospels, 422. 

Everlasting Gospel, Franciscan book so 
called, 86 seq. 

Evidences, history of, 362; in early church, 
4^3,455; in the Alexandrian school, 364; 
alteration in, according to time and 
place, 41, 460; in the middle age, 461; 
at the Renaissance, 462; in Franco in 
eighteenth century, 194, 207, 470; in 
Germany, 365, 472 ; in England, .461; 
Butler, 157; modern books on, 343, 433; 
subdivision of history of, 452 ; two modes 
of studying, 451 ; external, 73, 451, 453; 
why less used in early church, 73, 453; 
'internal, 414; value, of in eighteenth 
century, 370; instances of value. 362, 
364; logical force of, 15, 451 ; opposition 
to, whence, 203. 

Ewald, 252, 258, 430. 

Ewing, Greville, on Jews, 3S7. 



Fabricius, J. A. 13; works on Jewish 

controversy, 336. 
Fabricius, J. Consid. Yar. Con/rnv. 3S7. 
Fairness necessary in the inquiry, 346. 
Farmer on Demons, 202. 
Fathers of the fourth century, 460. 
Feeling used as a test of truth, 29, 30. 
Felix, Perc, 300. 
Ferrara, court of, 223. 
Feuerbach, 275. 
Fichte, 236. 

Ficinus, Dp. Jlrt. Christ. 462. . 
Fiction modern, pantheistic character of, 

313. 



Fleury, the historian, pref. xvii. 

Fleury, opinion on English literature, 
169. 

Fontenelle, 168, 193,201. 

Foreign Quarterly Review on Tholuck, 
285. 

Formula Concordise, 212. 

Formula Consensus, 113. 

Foscolo on Romantic epic, 94. 

Foster, 467. 

Fourier, 293. 

Fox, W. J. Religious Ideas, 338. 

Foxton, Popular Christianity, 338. 

France, state of when infidelity arose in 
eighteenth century, 164; sources of 
freethinking in, 178; school at begin- 
ning of century, 290 ; evidences in, 
470. 

Franck on Cabbala, 39, 3S2 : on Salvador, 
299. 

Francke, A. H. the Pietist, 424. 

Eraser's Magazine, on utilitarianism, 27; 
on pantheism in the university of Paris, 
299 ; on Renan, 3()2. 

Frederick II, blasphemy concerning three 
impostors, 83. 

— ■■ II, of Prussia, 176, 217. 

Freethinker explained, 416. 

Freethought, critical history of, pref. ix. ; 

• three kinds of, pref. v. ; law expressing 
the mode of its operation, 6-11; four 
epochs of its action, 7-11; office of in 
history, 348, 352; political character of 
in middle ages, 76, 91 ; change in mod- 
ern forms of it, 307, 352; use of inquiry 
into, 35 seq. 342; causes which made it 
turn into unbelief, 13 seq. 

French church under Bourbons, 301. 

French protectant church. See Protest- 
ant. 

French revolution, religious aspects of, 
188. 

Fries, German philosopher, 252. 

Fronto's attack on Christianity, 48. 

G. 

Galen, speaks of Christianity, 401. 

Galileo, 350. 

Gallican liberties, 165. 

Gaussen, writer on Theopneustie, 444, 

474. 
Geddes, Dr. works of, 422. 
Gellius Aulus, remark on reregrinus, 

49. 
Genesis, De Wette on, 256. 
Gen the, F. W. De Impost. Relig. 412. 
Geology, difficulties arising from, 315. 
Gerard on evidences, 55, 452. 
Gerhardt, German hymn-writer, 424. 
Germany; works of evidence in, 472; 

literature of, 210; patriotism in libera- 

tive war, 240; philosophy of, 235 seq ; 

theology of, subdivision of, 211 ; three 

periods in its history, 21S, sources of, 

439 ; classification of, 440. 
Gfrorer, 436. 
Gibbon, works criticised, 196 seq. 



INDEX. 



481 



Gibson, Bp. Pastorals of against "Wool- 
ston, 137, 466. 

Gildon's Oracles of Reason, 124. 

Gnostics, 8, 40. 

Godwin, Pol iticaljustice, 200. 

Goerres, German mystical philosopher, 
241. 

Gcittingen, university of, 219. 

Goze, opponent of Reimarus, 226. 

Gospels, controversy on explained, 267, 
268. 

Graffito blasfemo, 405. 

Grant, Sir A. on stoics, 45. 351. 

Graves, on Pentateuch, 468. 

Greece, state of in fifth century B. C. 
351. 

Greek words in the book of Daniel, 60. 

Greg, W. E. Creed of Christendom of, 
321. 

Gregory IX. pope, remark on Frederick 
II. 88. 

Grimm, baron, 178. 

Groen Van Printsterer. See Printsterer. 

Groningen party in Dutch church, 445. 

Grote on Greek mythology, 5 ; on soph- 
ists, 42; on state of Greece in fifth cen- 
tury B C. 351. 

Grotius, De Ver. Chr. Relig. 464. 

Grove on correlation of force, 354. 

Guadagnoli, a writer against Mahometan- 
ism, 355. 

Guhrauer, on Lessing, 426. 

Guizot on Prayer. 395. 

Gurlitt on Wolfenbiittel Fragments, 426 

Gustavus Adolphus association, 2S6. 

Gutskow, 276. 



II. 

Hadrian, mention of Christianity, 401. 

Havernick, 283. 

Hagenbach, pref xxiv. 

Hallam, subdivision of historical inquiry 
by, 379. 

Halle, pietistic opposition to "Wolff at, 
215; university of, 219, 244; orphan- 
house at, 424. 

Hamilton, sir W. criticism on Cousin, 28, 
433. 

Hampden, Bp. Philosophical Evidences 
of Christianity on Butler. 157. 

Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, 
3S1, 3S2. 

Harms's Theses, 201. 

Hartley, 148. 

Haureau on scholasticism, 80. 

Heathens, ancient, opposition to Chris- 
tianity, Lect. II.; religious tendencies 
among, 42 seq. ; reaction in favour of, 
44; parallel to the struggle with, 40, 
73 ; few references to " Christianity 
among, 400. 

Hebrew monarchy, F. Newman on, 326 ; 
people, Ewald's history of, 430. 

Hegel, 237, 263 ; compared with Ileracli- 
tus, 433. 

Hegelian philosophy. 263; contrasted 
with that of Schleierniacher, 265. 



Hegelian school, subdivided, 266 ; young 
school of, 438. 

Heine, H. the poet, 16, 276. 

Helvetius, works, 181 seq. 

Hengstenberg, 283; on Job, 5; on Penta- 
teuch, 254. 

Henke, pref. xvii. ; 233. 

Hennell, S 198, 322, 323. 

Herbart, German philosopher, creator of 
a realistic tendency, 438. 

Herbert of Cherbury, works, 118 seq. 

Herder, 228, 239. ' 

Hermes, professor at Bonn, 240. 

Hermias, apology of, 457. 

Herzog's lieal-Encycl. 17, 228, 241. 

Hey, professor at Cambridge, 392. 

Hierocles, 62; Eusebius's work against, 
408. 

Hieronymus, see Jerome. 

Hieronymus Xavier, see Xavier. 

Hilgenfeld, professor at Jena, 436. 

Hindu, literature, 382; philosophy, 383. 

Historic evidences of Christianity, 147. 

Historic method of study in philosophy, 
31, 379, 3S0, 396 ; the peculiarity of this 
age, pref. xiii. 

History, threefold phase of, 2, 3, 379. 

History of church, writers on, pref. xvii. 

Hobbes, works, 121 seq. 

Holland, sir H. on force, 354. 

Holland, modern theology of, 445 ; re- 
monstrants, 110. 

Holsten, Vita Porphyrii, 56. 

Holyoake, G. J. 312. 

Hoornbeek, Summa Controv. 296, 3S2, 
3S6, 393. 

Hottinger, Ilistoria Orientalis, 386, 389. 

Houtteville, pref. xv. ; 41, 62, 470. 

Huet, 19, 59, 450, 470. 

Hiitten, Ulric von, 99 

Hulse, founder of the Lecture, 207, 466.- 

Hulsius, 386. 

Hume, 148 seq. ; Essay on miracles, 150. 

Hundcshagen, 10; pref. xxiv. 

Ilyper-Lutherauism, 2S4. 

I. 

Iamblichns, life of Pythagoras by, 64. 

Idea, first used in a subjective sense by 
Descartes, 422. 

Idealism, difficulties arising from school 
of, 312. 

Ideology explained, 185, 421. 

Isnatian epistle, 49. 

Illsren's Zeitschrift, 87; on Eeimarus, 
426. 

Illuminism, name explained, 227. 

lmbonati, 386. 

Impostorilnis, De Tribus, legendary book 
so called, 89, 412. 

Infidel, word discussed, 413. 

Infidelity in France, 11 ; division of, 
169; summary of, 193 seq. ; in England 
after the French revolution, 200. 

Infinity, different theories on our knowl- 
edge of, 108. 

Inspiration, psychological analysis of, 



21 



482 



INDEX. 



29 ; -view cf in Germany in the seven- 
teenth century, 113, '212, 333, 337, 373; 
history of, 473; opinions of English 
divines concerning, 475 ; literature of, 
475. 

Interpretation, history of, 221; Sender's' 
historic method, 221 ; methods of, 222; 
Strauss's account of, 271. 

Intuition, relation of to religion as a 
test of truth, 27-29, 394 ; compared with 
pous, 331. 

Isaac, Rabbin, 3S5. 



Jacohi, German philosopher, 236, _283. 
Jehovah, discussion- on name, 255, 430 ; 

used in composition of Hebrew proper 

names, 431. 
Jena, university of. 228. 
Jenkins, writer on evidences, 467. 
Jerome, passages of about Porphyry, 53 

seq. 
Jerusalem, temple of, Julian's attempt to 

rebuild, 67. 
Jerusalem, German theologian, 226. 
Jewish controversy against Christianity, 

12, 3S4 seq. 
Jews, reformed, 337. 
Joachim, author of Everlasting Gospel, 

86. 
Job, Book of, 5. 
John of Parma, author of the preface to 

Everlasting Gospel., 36. 
Jouffroy, French philosopher, 447. 
Journal, Kitto's ; on inspiration, 473. 
Journalism, French, 294. 
Jowett, Professor, 62, 33 J, 332. 
Julia Donina, 63. 
Julian, 8; life of, 64, 65, 72 ; acts of, 66 ; 

book against Christians by, 63, 410, re- 
building of temple by, 67. 
Justin Martyr, 365, 334 ; apologies, 456. 

K. 

Kahnis, work on German protestantism, 

pref. xxv. ; 21S. 
Kant, relation of his view to religion, 27 ; 

compared with Abelard. 84 ; spread of 

his philosophy, 223 ; spirit of it, 269 ; 

theology of, 229 seq. ; division of ration- 
alists by, 416. 
Keil on Chronicles, 17. 
Kidder, Demonstration of Messias, 3S6. 
Kingsley, C. 32, 46, 330. 
Kirchenbund, and Kirchentag, 285. 
Kirchoif, discoveries on contents of solar 

atmosphere, 355. 
Kitto*s Biblical Cyclopmdia, on Job, 5 ; 

on Isaiah, 254 ; on interpretation, 220 ; 

on accommodation, 222 ; on Daniel, 408. 
Klose on Reimarns, 426. 
Koerner, the poet, 240. 
Koestlin, 436. 
Kortholt, De Relig. Mahom. 370 ; De 

Tribus Import. 412, 414; Paganus 

Obtrectator, 404. 



Krebsius on Lucian, 402. 
Kuenen, professor at Leyden, 446. 

L. 

Laban-e, 170. 

Labbeus, Concilia, 87. 

Lactantius, Divin. Instit. 453. 

Lake school of poetry, 239, 309. 

Lambert, St. 173. 

Lamennais, 447. 

La Mettrie, 177. 

Landscape art of England, 809. 

Lardners works, Lect. II. passim; pref. 
xix ; 466, 46S. 

Larroque, sceptical works of, 299. 

Latitude party in the English church in 
time of Charles 11.392. 

Laurent's works, 76. 

Lavater, 243. 

Laws of contradiction and sufficient rea- 
son, 215. 

Lay scholars among reformers, 212. 

Lechler, Uesch. des Engl. Deismus, pref. 
xx. 

Leclerc on inspiration, 113. 

Lectures apologetic, Boyle, &c. 466. 

Lee, Dr. S., tracts on Mahometanism, 
390 ; on German theology, pref. 

Lee, Dr. W. on inspiration," 114, 473. 

Leibnitz, philosophy of, 214. 

Lcipsic, school of, 219. 

Leland on Deism, pref. xviii. 

Leman lake, exiles of, 199. 

Le Moyne, Varia Sacra, 889. 

Leopardi, Italian poet, 15. 

Lerminier, De V influence, &c. 447. 

Leslie, C. Method with Deists, 467. 

Lessing, works, 238, 426; authorship of 
his Education of the World, 87. 

Libre pensee, pref. v. ; 416. 

Limborcn. Arnica Collntio, 386, 392. 

Lime Street Lecture. 466. 

Lindsay, lord, Scepticism a retrogres- 
sion, pref. xvi. 

Lippmann, Rabbin, 335. 

Literature in France, new tone of in 
eighteenth century, 166; Fleury's opin- 
ion of, 169. 

Lobeck on Mythology, 450. 

Locke, 125, 143 ; Webb on, 167. 

Lottie, Metaphysics, &c. distinguished, 
77 ; method of, taught by physical 
science, 9S. 

Logical and chronological priority distin- 
guished, 372. 

ASyos of Philo, 832. 

Lombard, Peter, 461. 

Louis XIV. 166. 

Lucian, a sceptic, 43 ; Peregr. Prot. 48 
seq. 402, 403 ; life, 4S ; Philopatris, 67, 
409. 

Lucretius, 43. 

Lutheran reaction. See Nto and Ihjper 
Lutheranism. 

Lyall, Propmd. Prophet. 152. 

Lyons, Infallibility of Human Judg- 
ment, 135. 



INDEX. 



483 



Lyttleton, on St Paul, 209, 368, 467. 

M. 

Mabi lion's Bernard, 82. 

Macaulay, subdivision of history, 379. 

Mackay, K. W. works of, 319 seq. 

Macmillan's Magazine on Cowper, &c. 23; 
on Miracle Plays, 95. 

Maerklin, 34. 

Magdeburg Centuries, pref. xvii. 

Mahabhurata, 333. 

Mahomet, 390. 

Mahouietans, controversy with, 12, 3S7, 
390. 

Maimonides, 107. 

Maine de Biran, Eclectic philosopher, 
394, 447. • 

Mandeville, 135. 

Mansel, Bampton Lect. 470 ; on Kant, 
229 ; on Fichte, 433. 

Maracci, Koran, 339. 

Marchand's JJictionnaire dc Iinpostori- 
bus, 412. 

Maret, 299. 

Marheinecke, Ilegclian theologian, 265. 

Marmontel, 173. 

Martineau, J. 321, 33S, 392 ; on Butler, 
157. 

Marty n, II. pamphlets on Mahometan- 
ism, 390. 

Masson, Essays, 33. 

Materialism defined, 166 ; in Germany, 
433. 

Maternus, 456. 

Maupertuis, 217. 

Maurice's Boyle Lectures, 330, 381. 

M'Caul's works on Judaism, SSL 

M'Cosh, works, 27, 469. 

M'Gill on the Chaldee of Daniel, 60. 

Mediation school of theology, 241, 279. 

Mendelssohn the philosopher, 225. 

Metaphysics, 24 ; tests of truth in, 25seq. ; 
subdivision of, 394. 

Mettrie, La, 177. 

Miall, E. Bases of Belief 469. 

Michaelis, 220. 

Michael Scot, 90. 

Micmelius, 386. 

Middleton, Conyers, 423. 

Mkrne, Lwres Sacres, 883 ; Demonstra- 
tions Evany el iques. 464. 

Mill, Dr. on Strauss, 273. 

Mill. J. S. on variation of terms, 11 ; on 
laws, 32, 311, 380 ; on utility, 27 ; on 
society, 32 ; on Benthamand Coleridge, 
309. 

Miller's Bampton Lectures, 366, 463. 

Mills, various readings, 132. 

Milman on Gibbon, 196. 

Milton, compared with Pope and Tenny- 
son, 22. 

Minucius Felix, apology, 44, 457. 

Miracle Plays, 95. 

Miracles, Hume on, 151 seq.; how dis- 
tinguished from wonder, 152 ; Trench's 
classification of attacks on', 154. 

Miscreant, name explained, 44. 



Missions in Germany, 285. 

Modern English theology, tendencies in, 
329 seq. 

Moehler, 240, 250. 

Monnaie, de la, 412. 

Montaigne, 167. 

Montesquieu, 168. 

Montgeron on the miracles of Abbe Paris, 
150. 

Moral causes of doubt. See Cause. 

Moral sense, 364, 369. 

Moravians, 161, 285. 

Morell's works on tests of truth, 19, 22, 25 ; 
on Inspiration, 29. 

Morgan's works, 140 seq. - 

Morinus on Hebrew vowel points, 113. 

Mornams, De Ver. 3S6, 463. 

Mosheim on Everlasting Gospel, S6. 

Moyer, lady, lecture on Arianism, 466. 

Muller, Julius, 250. 

Midler, Max, on myths, 270, 450 ; on San- 
skrit, 383. 

Muller, Ottfried, on mythology, 450. 

Mundt, 276. 

Mysticism, instances of, 29, 30. 

Myth, distinguished from parable and 
legend, 233; 269, 270. 

Mythology, Grote on, 5 ; altered opinion 
on in present century, 820, 45iJ. 

N. 

Names proper, in ITcbrew, 255, 431. 

National Review on Ecclesiastes, 5 ; on 
Swedenbonr, 30 ; on Gibbon, 196 ; on 
Shelley. 204 ; on Strauss, 273 ; on J. II. 
Newman. 310 ; on the working classes, 
313 ; on Theodore Parker, 324 ; on the 
Acts, 367. 

Natural history of doubt, peculiarity of 
inquiry, 346, 347. 

Naturalism, term explained, 415; com- 
pared with positivism, 339. 

Neander. Lect. II. passim; life and 
views. 250, 251, 364 ; opposed prohibi- 
tion of Strauss's book, 272. 

Nco-Lutheranism, 2S3. 

Neo-Platonism, explained, 46 : works on, 
399 ; teachers of, 399 ; in English the- 
ology, 332. 

Nettement's works on French literary 
history, 290, 446. 

New Testament, questions on, 367. 

Newman, F. 17, 34 ; works, 323, 826 seq ; 
Phases, 327, Hehr. Mon. 327. 

Nicholai, 219, 224. 

Nicholas, Michel, 254, 430, 448. 

Niedner's Zeitschrift, on Keimarus, 426. 

Nitzch, 250. 

Nizzachon, the two, 385. 

Nominalism, 9, 81. 

North British lleview, on Alexandrian 
school, 221 ; on socialism, 276, 292, 294; 
on German theology, 284; on Comte, 
295; on Galileo, 350; on S. Hennell,323; 
on Vedas, 8S3; on Socinianrsm, 392; on 
Vinet, 444 ; on apologetic literature, 464. 

Norton on Gospels, 40. 



484 



INDEX. 



Novalis, 239. 

Novel, modern, tendency of, 31S. 



O. 

Oberlin, 243. 

Ochino, a unitarian, 99. 

Ogilvie, Dr. on doubt, 13. 

Olshausen, H. 250. 

Ontology explained, 25. 

Oracles of Reason of Blount, 124. 

Oracles on Christianity, 57. 

Orcagna, Averroes in his fresco, 90. 

Origen against Celsus, 50, 51, 404, 457; 

comparison of with Schleierinacher, 2S5, 

460. 
Osiander, comparison of his views with 

Schleiermacher's, 247. 
Oxford movement in church, 424. See 

Reaction. 
Owen, E. 201 seq. 307. 
Owen, R. D. 202. 

P. 

Padua, university of, philosophy at, 100. 

Paine, T. 149 seq. 

Painting, early Italian schools of, 96. 

Paley, 466. 

Panizzi on Romantic Epic, 94. 

Pantheism at Padua, 100; two kinds of, 
101, 109; name explained, 414. 

Paolo Giovio, 96. 

Para du Phanjas, 464. 

Parable, distinguished from myth, 269. 

Paris, abbe, miracles of, 150. 

Parker, Theodore, life and writings of, 
323, 324. 

Pascal, 470. 

Patriotism in Germany. 240. 

Paulus, German theologian, 232 seq. 

Pearson on infidelity, 13, 811. 

Pccock, Reginald, 98. 

Pentateuch controversy, 254 seq. 

Peregrinus Proteus of Lucian, 49 seq 402. 

Persecution, cause of, 404 seq. 

Pestalozzi, 333. 

Peter, St. joke on in Romantic Epic, 94. 

Petrarch on Evidences, 462. 

PfafT, 419. 

Phases of Faith, of P. "W. Newman, 327. 

Philippsohn on Judaism, 3S7. 

Philopatris of Pseudo-Lucian, 67, 409. 

Philosophy, scholastic, 78 seq.; German, 
235 seq. 438. 

Philostratus's Life of Apollonius, 63 seq. 

Pliysics, difficulties derived from, 350; 
teaches logical method, 9S. 

Physiology, modern discoveries in, 355; 
mode of approaching psychology 
through, 438. 

Piers Plowman, the poem, on contempo- 
rary scepticism, 90. 

Pietism, 213, 424. 

Planck, A. on Lucian, 50, 402. 

Tlanck's Sacred Philolo-ry, 221. 

Plato on Sophists, 42; doctrines on reli- 
gion, 45, Platonic dialectic, 7S; Pla- 



tonic party at Cambridge in the seven- 
teenth century, 124, 392. 

Plurality of worlds, 201. 

Poetry in Germany, schools of, 425. 

Pomponatius, 101. 

Pope, compared with Milton and Tenny- 
son, 22: influence of Bolingbroke on, 
145. 

Porphyry, life and character, 56 seq. 71 ; 
references for studying, 56; view of 
oracles, 57; work against Christians, 57 
seq.; attack on Daniel, 60 seq.; other 
views of, 61, 62; on predication, 57-, 
letter to Marcella, 71. 

Port Royal, miracle of the thorn, 153. 

Positivism, described, 296 ; in England, 
311; reliction of, 312; compared with 
Naturalism, 339. 

Pouilly, critic on Roman history, 144. 

Powell, Baden, on Deluge, 17. 

Prayer, extract from Guizot on, 395. 

Prejudices of heathens against Christian- 
ity, 405. 

Preventative consciousness, 894. 

Press, freedom of in England, 123. 

Presscnse, pref. xix., 42,356, 404, 448,449, 
451, 453. 

Priestly, 392. 

Printsterer, Groen van, 445. 

Progress in religion, 87. 

Protestant church in France, freethought 
in, 304, 448. 

Protestantism distinguished from scepti- 
cism, pref. vi.; 9, 99. 

Providence, Holyoake on, 313. 

Psalms: the seventy-third named, 5, 19; 
the division of into books, 256. 

Pseudo-Clementines, 400. 

rseudo-Lucian, Philopatris, 409. 

Psychology explained, 24; Morrcll on, 
395. 

J'ngio Fidei, 3S5. 

Pulci, 95. 

Puscy on German theology, pref. xxi. ; on 
inspiration, 475. 



Quakers, 29. 

Quarterly Review, on Leopardi, 16 ; on 

Romantic Epic, 94; on Theophilanthro- 

pists, 190; on Fourier, 292. . 
Qui net, E. on comparison of religions, 5, 

3S1 ; on Strauss, 273. 

R. 

Racovian Catechism, 391. 

Ramayana, 382. 

Rambouillet, 178. 

Ramus, P. 102. 

Rationalism in Germany, 11, 231, 234; 
subdivided, 218, 417; compared with 
Deism, 321; explained, 416 seq.; litera- 
ry dispute on, 418; in English church, 
329, 340. 

Ratisbon, confession of, 212. 

Ray, 400. 



INDEX. 



485 



Raymond, Martin, 386. 

Eaynal, 178. 

Reaction among heathens, 44; Catholic 
in France, 300, 448; in Italy, 103; in 
Oxford, 285, 310. 

Readings, variety of in sacred tests, 182. 

Realism explained, 9, 79 seq. 

Rees, translation of Racovian Catechism, 
391. 

Reformation, twofold element in, 211 ; not 
sceptical, 9, 99; prof. vi. j 211; in Italy, 
99. 

Reformed Jews, 337. 

Reimannus, 7. 

Reimarus, 225, 426 

Reinhardt, 231. 

Reinhold, 228. 

Religion, comparative study of, 4, 3S0; 
Greek, 5 ; eastern, 4. 

Remonstrants in Dutch church, 110, 445. 

Renaissance, 92 seq ; literature at, 96; 
unchristian sympathy at, 96; evidences 
at, 462. 

Renan, E. 5, 31, 302 seq.; 397; Averroes, 
89 ; Lect. iii. passim. 

Renand, 299. 

Repressor. See Pecock. 

Responsibility for belief IS. 

Reuss, 448. 

Reville, 446. 44S. 

Revolution, French, 18S ; profanity of, 1S9. 

Revue des Deux Mondes ; Taillandier on 

. Abelard, 81; Saisset on Spinoza, 106; 
Remusat on Herbert, 119; Girardin on 
Rousseau's Em He, 188; Scherer on 
Hegel, 266, 39S; Reville on Parker, 
S24; on Comte, 296; Moieschott, 438-, 
Young Hegelians, 438; Reville on Hol- 
land, 446; Renan on metaphysics, 303. 

Revue Germauique, on Leasing, 224 ; on 
Gospels, 267. 

Rickardi Con J 'alalia, 3SS. 

Riddle's Bampton Lectures, pref xv. •, 46S. 

Rigg, J. H. Anglican theology, 330. 

Riggenbach, 445. 

Robespierre, 190. 

Robins, S. pref. xvi. 

Rogers, H. 374, 469. 

Rohr, 234. 

Romaine, 160. 

Roman catholic theology in Germany, 
442. 

Romantic Epic, 94 seq.; school in Ger- 
many, 239, 291. 

Roscelin on Trinity, SO. 

Rose, H. J. on German theology, pref. xxi. 

Rosenmiiller, 220. 

Rothe, German theologian, 279, 281, 436. 

Rousseau, sources for study of, 1S3; life, 
183; works, 1S4 seq.; Contrat social, 
184; Emile, 185; Confessions, 187; 
compared with Voltaire, 1SS. 

Ruge, 275. 

S. 

Saintes-Amand, pref. xxiv. 
Saisset, E. on Spinoza, IDS. 



Salomo Zebi, 3S6. 

Salvador, 299, 3S7. 

Sanskrit literature, 3S2. 

Saumur, school of, 212. 

Saussnre, Ch. de la, 446. 

Scepticism explained, 413 seq. ; kinds of, 
419. 

Schelling, 27, 46, 23S, 433. 

Scherer, 31, 397, 448, 474. 

Scklegel, F. 239. 

Schleiermacher, 242 seq.; critical works 
of, 24S ; translates Plato, 242 ; theological 
works of, 244, 428 seq. ; Glaubenslehre, 
245; his studies, 428 ; compared with 
Origen and H. St. Victor, 244; and with 
Plato, 427. 

Schmidt, G. 276. 

Schneckenbiirger, 436. 

Scholastic, philosophy, 77 seq ; origin of 
name, 77; divisions of, 81; value of 
scholastic theology, 462. 

Scholtens. J. H. professor at Leyden, 446. 

Schools of German poetry, 425. 

Schopenhauer, 438. 

Schramm, Anal. Pair. 41, 454, 

Schrockh, pref. xvii. 

Scholtens, 446. 

Schulze, 228. 

Schwarz, C. Gesch. pref. xxv. 

Schwegler, 436. 

Schwelzer, 439, 444. 

Science, anticipations of the future con- 
dition of, 354 seq. 

Science in Iheologi/, 335. 

Scriptures, doubts of, 361. 

Sebonde on natural religion, 104, 462. 

Seeker, Abp. relieves Annet, 144, sub- 
scribes to Voltaire, 171. 

Secularism, explained, 312, 313. 

Semler, works and svstem, 218 seq. 

Sensation, as a test of truth, 25. 

Sensationalism, meaning of, 25. 

Servetus, 99. 

Severus, Sept. 63. 

Shaftesburv, Lord. 130 seq. 

Shelley, 16; 203 seq ; works, 206. 

Sherlock, 467. 

Sic et Non, 82. 

Silence of heathens on Christianity, 402 
seq. 

Simeon of Cambridge, 160. 

Simon, Jules, 471. 

Simon, Richard, 83, 168. 

Sirveu, 170. 

Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, on Eccle- 
siastes, 5 ; Canon, 58 ; Genesis, ' 257 ; 
Daniel, 408 ; Jehovah, 430. 

Socialism, English, 201 ; French, 292 : in 
1848, 294; compared with English, 294. 

Socinianism, 12, 99, 391. 

Socrates, 84, 351. 

^2,0'pla, of Aristotle, 78. 

Sophists of Greece, 351. 

Sources of information for the attacks of 
heathens, 41. 

for lectures, pref. 

Spener, the Pietist, 213, 424. 

Spinoza, 60; sources of information on 



486 



INDEX. 



106; philosophy of, 107; Th.eologicus 
Politicus, 110; effects of, 113. 

Stahl, 283. 

Stanhope's Boyle Lectures, 3S6. 

Statistics, difficulties from, 314. 

Stattler, 464. 

Stephen, list of writers on inspiration, 

474. 
'Sterling, 34. 

Stilling, Jung, 243, 2S5. 

Stiilingfleet, 466. 

Stirner, 276. 

St. Lambert. See Lambert. 

Stoics, religious opinions of, 45. 

Storr, 231. 

Strauss, 34; on Julian, 66; life and 
writings, 267, 434 ; life of Christ, 266, 
271; Christology, 269, 433; view of 
Christ's ideal, 356; replies to, 273, 435; 
effects of, 272 seq. ; view of his own 
work, 273 ; on Keimarus, 427. 

St. Simon, life and sect, 293, 294. 

Subjective character of modern unbelief, 
303. 

^vyKardfiao-is, 222. 

Suetonius on Christianity. 401. 

Supernatural, tendency of labour to de- 
press the sense of, 314. 

Swedenborg, 29. 

Swift, ou Woolston, 137. 

Switzerland, modern theology of, 414. 

Symmachus, 69. 



Tacitus on Christianity, 401. 

Taillandier on Abelard, SI, S3. 

Taine on Livv, 302, 379. 

Tatian, 48, 456 

Tavlor, A. on Latitudinarians, 128. 

Taylor, I. 4C9 

Technical. See Terms. 

Telesius, 102. 

Templars, unbelief of, S9. 

Tendencies, religious, among ancient hea- 
thens, 40 seq. 

Tennyson, compared with Pope and Mil- 
ton, 23 ; quoted, 260. 

Terms, technical, 413 ; literature of, 419. 

Tertullian's Apology. 457. 

Tests of truth, effects of various theories 
of, 25-30. 

Thaer, author of Lessing's Education of 
the World, 87. 

Theodore of Mopsuestia, 221. 

Theodosius II. destroyer of heathen 
works against Christianity, 41. 

Theologians, German ; classification of, 
440 seq. See Modem English. 

Theophilanthropists, 190. 

Theophilus, apologist, 457. 

Tholuck, 249; on evidences, 464; pref. 
xxiii. ; on inspiration, 473; attack on 
Butler's Analogy, 157. 

Thomson's, Bp. Bampton Lectures, 368, 
385, 469. See Atonement. 

Tillemont, pref. xvii. 

Tindal, M. works, 139 seq. ; suggestive 
of Butler's Analogy, 157. 



Toland, works, 127 seq. 

Toldos Jeschu, 3S5. 

Toleration, works on, and principle of. 
118, 406. 

Treason, charge of against early Chris- 
tians, 406. 

Trench's Calderon, 95. 

Truth, see Tests. 

Tubingen school, 209, 274, 277, 367 ; uni- 
versity of, 219. 

Tullock's Inaugural Address, 339; Bur- 
nett prize, 469. 

Turpin, Abp. joke on in Komantic Epic, 
95. 

Twelfth century, great minds in, 86. 

Twesten, 250. 

Tzchirner s Essay, 400 ; Apologetik, pref. 
xix. 

U. 

Ullmann, 250. 

Unbelief, see Cause, Subjective. 

Uniformities of Causation and Co-exist- 
ence, 79. 

Unigenitus Bull, 165. 

Union of German churches. 2S2. 

Unitarianism, history ol, and works on, 
392 seq. 

Universities, German, 219, 22S; that of 
Paris attacked lor Pantheism, 299. 

Utility of the inquiry into doubt, pref. 
xii. ; 342 seq. 



Van den Ende, 106. 

Vanini, 103. 

Van Mildert, pref vi, xv. ,* on moral causes 

of doubt, 13, 345. 
Vaughan, R. A. on mystics, 30 : essays, 59. 
Vedas, 3S2. 
Vendidad Sade, 381. 
Vilmar, classification of German poetry, 

425. 
Viuet, 444, 448. 

Vituperation in books of evidence of seven- 
teenth century, 465. 
Volney, Les Raines, 191 seq. ; 290. 
Voltaire, on Woolston, 137; life of, 170; 

character of, 171 seq. ; Carlyle on, 171 ; 

theological works of, 174 ; opinions of, 

175; ridicule, 172. 
Vowel points in llebrew, controversy on, 

113. 

W. 

Wagenseil, Tela Ignea Satanaz, SS5. 

Wal'ch, 419, 460. 

"Walton's Polyglott, various readings in, 

132. 
Warburton, Divine Legation, 466, 467. 
Waterland, reply to Tindal, 138, 464. 
Watson, Bp. 198, 464. 
Webb on Locke, 16S. 
Wegscheidor, 235. 
Weimar, court of, 228. 
Welcker on mythology, 450. 
Werenfels, tests for miracles, 153. 
Wesley, 161, 392. 






LNDEX. 



487 



Westcott on canon, 58; on Daniel, 403 J 
on Inspiration, 472. 

Westminster Review; on Job, 5; Heine, 
16; Rousseau, 183; German theology, 
8; Byron and Shelley, 203; Owen, 202; 
Weimar, 228; Vedas, 383; Bentham, 
309; Positivism, 312; Carl vie, 315; 
Emerson, 317; S. Hennell, 323; Parker 
and Strauss, 324; F. Newman, 327; 
Socialism, 438; Taine, 302; Schopen- 
hauer, 432. 

Whately's Rhetoric, 14. 

Whewell, 28, 79, 309. 

White, Blanco, 34. 

Whitfield, 160. 

Wichern's Inner Mission, 2S5. 

Will distinct from PZmotion, 394. 

Wiseman, Cardinal, Lectures, 469. 

Wolfenbuttel Fragments, 225, 420 seq. 

Wolf, J. A. on Homer, 253. 

Wolffs Bibliotheca Hebraica, 3S6. 

Wolff, philosophy of, 214 seq.; life of, 215, 
216; sources for studying, 215; effects 
of, 216. 



Woodham, 73, 454 
Woolstencraft, 200. 
Woolston, 136 seq. 420. 
Wordsworth quoted, 115; 
Wulferus, 3S6. 



Xavier, Hieronimo, a writer against the 
Mahometans, 296. 

Y. 

Yacna, 3S7. 

Youug's Christ of History, 469. 



Zeitstimmen, Ac. 436. 
Zeller, 436, 444. 
Zend Literature, 3S1. 
Zeno of Elea, S4. 
Zinzendorf, 161. 
Zoroaster, 381. 
Zurich, university of, 444. 



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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



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